The Hindu Business Line : ‘Aam Aadmi’ Budget bypasses children: CRY

Not enough
Increase in expenditure on children is at Rs 1,500 cr, i.e. 14%
Total allocation for school education, health is below 10% of GDP
Increased ICDS allocation at Rs 6,705 crore, while welcome, may take a while to materialise

Our Bureau

Mumbai, July 10 Children have been bypassed by the ‘aam admi’ Budget 2009, says CRY (Child Rights and You). Despite being plugged citizen-friendly, the Union Budget falls short on three counts — new funds for schools, food and the ICDS programme, a CRY note said.

Public expenditure on schooling falls short, given the number of children in the school-going age every year, the note said. No new money has been allocated to realise the proposed Food Security Act. And without a holistic approach to food, there is no guarantee that children will grow up food secure, it added. Also, the promise to universalise ICDS has been long-standing and while the increased allocation at Rs 6,705 crore for the ICDS is welcome, the impact on the ground can take years to materialise, it observed.

The increase in expenditure on children is just Rs 5,100 crore, an estimated 14 per cent increase, that will hardly cover the number of children added to the population each year, CRY said. “Most developed countries in the world like the US, UK and France spend around 6-7 per cent of their national budgets for public education and health, while India allocates around 3 per cent for education and around 1 per cent for health,” the organisation said.

Important to implement

“When we emulate first-world economic growth, we must realise that economic growth is meaningless unless it reaches 70 per cent of India’s poorest,” the note said, quoting CRY Director Mr Dipankar Majumdar. “For a country that is firmly on a growth path, a decrease in public spending on education and health from 1999-2000 to now, is regressive,” he added.

The total allocation for school education and health is well below the required 10 per cent of GDP to be allocated to school education and health. Public spending on basic rights is not just good policy, but also good economics, he added. “The Central government’s allocation for 40 per cent of India’s population — its children — remains at 5.09 per cent and it is clear that State budget allocations will not make up for the needs,” he observed.

Further, CRY points out, the Centre’s aam aadmi image needed to be backed up by not just allotment, but utilisation as well. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had rapped the Government in early 2009 for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan funds that were returned unutilised, the note said.

Besides sanctioning new ICDS centres, the Centre should make them operational and staff them with trained personnel. “Even the better-developed States like Gujarat and Maharashtra have been unable to operationalise all the sanctioned anganwadis,” the note said.

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‘Aam Aadmi’ Budget bypasses children: CRY