Which Five Year Plan of India, for the first time, explicitly placed major emphasis on the objective of removal of poverty?

Introduction / Context:
India's Five Year Plans each had specific objectives and priorities. While earlier plans addressed growth, agriculture and industrialisation, the Fifth Five Year Plan is especially remembered for its explicit emphasis on removal of poverty, captured in the slogan Garibi Hatao. Many competitive examination questions test whether candidates can correctly connect this major policy focus with the appropriate plan number. Understanding these historical policy shifts helps in grasping the evolution of India's development strategy.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The question asks which plan first gave major explicit emphasis to poverty removal.
• The options range from the Fourth to the Seventh Five Year Plans.
• The Garibi Hatao slogan is historically associated with the period of the Fifth Plan.
• Earlier plans focused more on growth, agriculture and industrial capacity, though they acknowledged poverty in general terms.

Concept / Approach:
The Fourth Plan continued the strategy of planned growth with stress on self reliance, but it was during the Fifth Plan period that poverty removal became the central declared objective. The Fifth Five Year Plan, covering the mid 1970s, explicitly prioritised the removal of poverty along with self reliance. The slogan Garibi Hatao became a political and policy theme of that time. Although later plans refined and extended anti poverty programmes, the first plan to highlight this objective so prominently was the Fifth Plan.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that the slogan Garibi Hatao is associated with the mid 1970s and the Fifth Five Year Plan.Step 2: Remember that the First, Second and Third Plans focused on agriculture, heavy industry and general growth.Step 3: Note that while the Fourth Plan discussed poverty, it was the Fifth Plan that explicitly made removal of poverty a main objective.Step 4: Select the Fifth Five Year Plan as the correct answer.

Verification / Alternative check:
You can verify this association by thinking of overlapping development programmes. Employment oriented schemes and targeted anti poverty programmes gained prominence around the Fifth Plan. Many textbooks summarising the plans explicitly state that the Fifth Plan gave top priority to removal of poverty and self reliance. Later plans continued to address poverty but did not have as strong a new slogan or new first time emphasis as the Fifth Plan did in this respect.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A, the Fourth Plan, is wrong because although it discussed poverty, it did not give the same explicit and central emphasis to Garibi Hatao. Option C, the Sixth Plan, came later and focused on themes such as removal of poverty, modernisation and technological self reliance but was not the first to introduce poverty removal as a central objective. Option D, the Seventh Plan, also continued development objectives but again was not the first to place major emphasis on poverty removal. The Fifth Plan stands out historically as the plan that first did so.

Common Pitfalls:
Candidates sometimes confuse the numbering of the plans or mix up slogans linked to different periods. Another mistake is to assume that any later plan would naturally be the first to emphasise a social objective, which is not necessarily true. A good exam strategy is to prepare a concise table listing each Five Year Plan with one or two key phrases, such as heavy industry for the Second Plan or Garibi Hatao and removal of poverty for the Fifth Plan, and revise it regularly.

Final Answer:
The Fifth Five Year Plan was the first plan that explicitly gave major emphasis to the objective of removal of poverty.