HAQ: Centre for Child Rights has analysed the 2008-09 budget in light of what it does for children in terms of allocation for various schemes and also in terms of policy

India’s march towards global leadership is accompanied by its leadership in child labour, sexual abuse, starvation, malnourishment as well as out-of-school and destitute children. Given the need to protect children from exploitation and ensure that the fruits of economic progress reach them, the government has various schemes in place, whose budgetary allocation is decided in the annual Union budget.

HAQ: Centre for Child Rights has analysed the 2008-09 budget in light of what it does for children in terms of allocation for various schemes and also in terms of policy. It is an attempt to disaggregate from the overall budget, allocations made specifically for programmes that benefit children.

From 2000-01 to 2006-07, children received an average of 3.10% of the Union budget. In 2007-08, their share was 4.8%. In the recently announced Budget 2008-09, the share of the budget for children is 4.98%.

Health has consistently received low priority from the government. While there is an increase of Rs 3.75 (0.21%) crore in the health sector, there is a fall in the budget allocation for child health in proportion to the total budget in 2007-08, from 0.268% to 0.244%.

Several states have introduced user charges for services in public health facilities. India has one of the highest out-of-pocket household expenditures for health services, and user charges further augment this expenditure (it has been calculated at between 80%-97%). What does this mean for the child, especially if the child is a girl or disabled?

There is a reduction in allocation for pulse polio immunisation, from Rs 1,289.38
crore in 2007-08 to Rs 1,042 crore this year though there was an outbreak of polio in 2006 with 471 cases being reported in 2007. To respond to this, supplementary immunisation activities have been intensified in high-risk areas in the 2008 budget.

There was an increase of Rs 904.2 crore (19%) in allocation on the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. As on January 31, 2008, 10.52 lakh anganwadis were sanctioned. As of June 30, 2007, there were 863,472 operational anganwadi centres. There continues to be a shortfall of 7.68 lakh anganwadis.

There has been an increase in the salaries of anganwadi workers from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500. However, Rs 838.80 crore of the Rs 904.2 crore increase will go towards meeting this expense, and only an additional Rs 65.4 crore is available for implementation of the ICDS programme over last year’s budget.

No money has been made available for training this year. In the last budget, the amount was Rs 78 crore. The government’s claims of universalising the ICDS appear suspect in this context.

There is a fall of 6.70% in the much-touted Rajiv Gandhi Creche Scheme.

Allocation towards protection of children has increased from 0.045% of the Union budget to 0.056%. This increase is largely due to the increase in allocation for the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) from Rs 85.50 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 180 crore this year.

While this recognition of the need to protect children is welcome, a reduction in allocation for programmes for juvenile justice will not help, as the ICPS is still to take off. Besides, in the first year, the ICPS will only cover five states. It never got off the ground due to lack of financial clearance. The ministry had requested Rs 3,000 crore to implement the ICPS for five years. The Planning Commission reduced this to Rs1,000 crore. The finance minister allocated only around Rs 85 crore in 2007-08, which was cut to Rs 38.5 crore. This year, it has been increased by Rs 95 crore.

This gives rise to three concerns. One, is this sufficient to protect all children? Two, is it even sufficient to meet the basic requirements of the law? The Juvenile Justice Law makes it mandatory to establish Child Welfare Committees (CWC) and Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB) in all 611 districts of the country. With the money now available, will it be possible to do this? Lastly, is it even sufficient to get an integrated scheme of this nature off the ground?

Last year, there was a reduction in the government’s share (other than education cess) of allocation towards the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). This year, the increase in allocation for both the midday meal scheme and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan can be traced to the Rs 11,128 crore collection through the 2% education cess which was far more than the expected collection of Rs 10,393 crore.

The education cess money goes into two programmes -- the SSA and the midday meal scheme. Budget figures this year show that allocation towards the midday meal scheme and the SSA together in the 2007-08 revised estimates was Rs 19,849 crore, while this year (2008-09), the allocation for both programmes is Rs 21,100 crore. This is an increase of 6.3% for both programmes. However, in the same period, collection through the education cess has increased to 23.33%. If people have contributed 23.33% more through the education cess for both programmes, why can’t the government do the same for children?

Source: www.haqcrc.org, March 2008