The Minimum Needs Programme was introduced in the first year of the Fifth Five Year Plan. The objective of the Programme was to set up a network of basic services and facilities of social consumption in all the areas upto nationally-accepted norms, within a particular time-frame. The programme is intended to assist in raising living standards and in reducing the regional disparities in development. The basic needs of the people accredited for this programme are elementary education, adult education, rural health, rural roads, rural electrification, rural housing, environmental improvement of urban slums and nutrition.