Though the plight of children, especially of deprived sections, has been constantly on the radar in the country, the Union government seems to have blinked heavily while making provisions for their welfare, an analysis of the budget suggests.
The analysis of budget 2019-20, presented in Parliament on Friday, shows that a mere 3.29 per cent of the entire budget has been put aside for children welfare schemes—the least provision percentage-wise in the past decade.
This is when 40 per cent of India’s population (0-18 years age group) falls in the children category and indices for their development is one of the poorest across the globe. The analysis by Bhopal-based NGO Vikas Samvad shows that of the Rs 27,86,349-crore budget, only Rs 91,644.2 crore has been allocated for children’s schemes. This comes to 3.29 per cent of the entire budget.
In contrast, during the financial year 2010-11, about Rs 44,961.41 crore—3.76 per cent of the total Rs 11,97, 328-crore budget—was allocated for children’s welfare. The Manmohan Singh government had increased the budgetary allocation for children later and it peaked at 5.04 per cent in the financial year 2012-13, but then a constant decrease was shown in the percentage allocation, the analysis shows.
Cut in education, health sectors
More shockingly, the current budget shows a cut in the key sectors like education and health, and almost status quo in allocation for nutrition. Ten years ago (2010-11), about 83 per cent of the child-related budget was spent on education and for betterment of deprived children. However, now this has come down to 67.6 per cent—a drastic cut by 16 per cent in ten years.
“This will only widen the ways for privatisation in the sector and affect the deprived section of children the most. The intention of the government looks quite restrictive and defies logic,” Rakesh Malviya, who analysed the ten years budget data, said.
Ten years ago in 2010-11, about 4.4 per cent of the entire child budget was allocated for health provisions, which was highest in the decade. After this only once in 2017-18 it remained 4.2 per cent, but this year it has slumped to 3.5 per cent. This year, the government has made an allocation of merely Rs 3,218.33 crore for child health.
This comes at a time when between 2008 and 2015, about 1.11 crore children died in the country untimely of diseases like diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia.
As for child nutrition, in a country with 35.8 per cent malnourished children, statistics of ten years show that the maximum provision for nutrition programmes like Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and National Nutrition Mission was done in 2015-16 at 26.7 per cent of the child budget. Ten years ago, this was 20.6 per cent of the total allocation for children. This year, government made 21.2 per cent allocation out of the child budget).
Child protection is the only sector for children where the government has increased percentage of budget allocation. Now, about Rs 1,500 crore would be spent for ICPS, though this is merely 1.5 per cent of the entire child budget.
Some highlights of ‘child unfriendly budget’
- India has 40 per cent of its population under the age of 18 years, who are considered to be children.
- The allocation for children in India’s budget is declining. In 2010-11, 3.76% of the total budget was dedicated for children, which was substantially increased in 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14.
- Then onwards there is a constant decline and the allocations for 2019-20 will only be 3.29 per cent of the total budget.
- Two-thirds of the total child budget goes for school education, 21.2% is for ICDS and National Nutrition Mission. Only 3.5% of the child budget is allocated for child health.
- Our government will be spending 6.60 lakh crore against payment of interest against Rs 91,640 crore on children of the country.
