Women all over the world in general and Indian women in particular have been facing different problems. A recent report titled 'Women and children in India' and a nearly simultaneous report on "Indian women, their Health and Economic productivity' highlight the international importance being given to the problems of the Indian women. Unfortunately, both the reports fail to either convey a fresh understanding of the issues or to suggest innovative and workable approaches for women's development. The former is because the reports restrict themselves to old statistics. We are told, for example, that the ratio of women to men remains below its natural level and that it is related to other parameters, such as the level of literacy and the availability of primary health care. The failure to suggest a fresh approach is less understandable given that a variety of approaches to women's development has been tried out all over the world. In India, the State has made a strong political and economic commitment to women. In 1990, the National Commitment to Women was established. In 1969, two major policy documents were released. Ever since the Sixth Five-year plan, there has been a special section on socio-economic programmes for women. Poverty alleviation programmes have a 30% target for women. Special programmes like development of women and children in Rural Areas have also been started. These approaches have had mixed results. For example, certain organisation's approach of using bank credit to organise self-employed women has worked well. So did women's literacy programmes in Kerala. On the other hand, some of the legislated reforms like dowry prohibition have not worked well. The issue of whether women should be identified as separate participator in the development process is also not free from controversy. In this context, it is disappointing to read in one of the reports that one of the government's target for 1991-95 was to foster "an ethos of caring in the community- not to let a child go to bed hungry, be subjected to a preventable disease or remain without learning opportunity-this could not mark the beginning of a social process towards a more humane order". Is the report saying then that Indians do not love their children, as a matter a cultural practice? Both the reports are likely to be highly influential on opinion leaders and policy makers. It is very unfortunate that these reports have become superficial and do not delve sufficiently deep into the real problems.