Even as the Government faces a fiscal squeeze, its spending on social sector schemes increased during 2012-13, says the Economic Survey, underlining the need for ‘convergence’ of some Centrally sponsored schemes.
Whether the forthcoming Union Budget heeds the Survey’s advice remains to be seen, as social sector allocations are expected to go up considering that the 2014 general elections are nearing.
According to the Survey, the share of Central Government expenditure (Plan and Non-Plan) on social sector and rural development rose from 14.8 per cent in 2007-08 to 17.4 per cent in 2012-13 (Budget Estimate) 2007-08 to 25.1 per cent of total expenditure in 2012-13.
In what the Survey refers to as ‘social services’, the expenditure on education increased from 43.9 per cent in 2007-08 to 46.6 per cent in 2012-13 (BE), but it declined in a crucial segment -- health -- from 21.5 per cent to 19.2 per cent.
“India's expenditure on health as a per cent of GDP is very low compared to many other emerging and developed countries,” the Survey noted.
Restructuring of schemes
The Survey calls for a “careful exercise in identifying overlapping schemes and weeding out or converging them. A threshold level could also be fixed for the schemes as a critical minimum investment or outlay is needed for any programme to be successful.”
Another area that needs attention is decentralisation in implementation, it says, calling for a bottoms-up approach to plug leakages.
It says the proposed higher outlays for panchayati raj institutions during the 12th Plan should be converted into outcomes, and calls for greater focus on empowering PRIs through training and awareness generation coupled with social audit of all social sector programmes.
Devolution to States
Noting the mixed performance of States when it comes to growth vis-a-vis human development indicators, the Surveys calls for a rethink on the criteria used for devolution of funds.
“..While some states have performed well in terms of growth indicators, they have performed poorly in terms of poverty, rural-urban disparity, unemployment, education, health and financial inclusion,” it notes.
For instance, while Bihar is the best performer in terms of growth (16.7 per cent), it has the highest decadal (2001-11) growth rate of population (25 per cent) and highest poverty head count ratio (53.5 per cent) as well the highest unemployment rate at 73 per cent. And, while Kerala’s HDI indicators are good, with the highest sex ratio at 1,084, and lowest decadal population growth rate at 4.9 per cent, its unemployment rate is high at 73 per cent.
Schemes and beneficiaries
Mid-day Meal scheme : About 10.5 crore children benefited
Bharat Nirman : 25.35 lakh houses were sanctioned and 13.88 lakh were constructed
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna : Rs 1,02,658 crore released to the States, about Rs 96,939 crore spent by December 2012.
MGNREGA : Out of Rs 33,000 crore outlay approved for 2012-13, Rs 25,894 crore was released
JNRUUM : Over 1.57 million houses sanctioned, more than 6.60 lakh completed and 4.37 lakh occupied.