Budget 2016-17: As If Children Matter

By Joseph Anthony Gathia

16 March, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Earlier the Economic Survey 2015-16 and now the Budget 2016-17 gave impression that deprived sections of our country are going to get fair treatment but a careful analysis shows that there is crafty shift in resource mobilisation and the onus of the development funding has been shifted to the state governments , especially for health, nutrition, and education, which is likely to impact children who are 36.6 per cent of India’s total population .

Let us examine two important sectors: health and education in relation to the Economic Survey 2015-16 and the Budget 2016-17.

Education

Education plays pivotal role in social change and early childhood education is the key for overall well-being of a child. The biggest investment that is needed to ensure equitable and quality learning for all age groups must begin with investment in care and early childhood development services. The budget for Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) has declined marginally since last year and this will definitely impact plans to add quality to crèche and pre-school component of ICDS and turn Anganwadi Centres into ‘vibrant learning centres’

The one clear message of the Economic Survey 2015-2016 is that the quality of public provisioning of basic services, such as health and education, is declining and people are opting for services provided by the private sector. Government schools’ enrolment in rural areas dipped from 72.9 per cent in 2007 to 63.1 per cent in 2014, (Annual Status of Education Report or ASER, 2014).

Although the government funding for education in 2016-17 is Rs. 71,139 crore an increase of seven per cent since last year, but the allocation for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has seen a meagre hike. Though the decision to invest in building 62 new Navodaya Vidyalayas and plans for ten public and ten private institutions to emerge as world-class Teaching and Research Institutions is welcome, but this intervention cannot meet the current challenge of ensuring ‘quality with access and equity’ across 1445807 elementary (Grades I-VIII) schools in the country out of which 74.47 per cent are government schools catering to 118,973,934 children (DISE 2014-15). Investment in primary grades in capacity building of teachers, particularly to ensure that children learn to read and write is essential.

Disaggregated data shows that per student expenditure can be as low as Rs 37 and Rs 40 in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, respectively. The survey states that “an increase in expenditure per se may not guarantee appropriate outcomes and achievements” and efficiency of expenditure is equally important. However, without adequate investments, quality suffers. In rural government schools, the percentage of children who could do division in standard V halved from 41 per cent in 2007 to 20.7 per cent in 2014 (ASER 2014). In private schools also, the percentage of children who could do division in standard V declined from 49.4 per cent in 2007 to 39.3 per cent in 2014 in private schools. The survey admits that the ‘decline in enrolment in government schools and shift to private schools might be related to poor quality education in government schools’. Alarmingly, it surmises that the poor quality is because ‘it is free or offered for a nominal fee.’ Is the survey blaming the poor for availing of free education for the government providing bad quality education? Is it preparing the ground for ‘user fees’ by regarding free education as a ‘subsidy’? Therefore, while declaring that greater investments are needed in education, is it really questioning the need for universal free education?

Health

Like education, the expenditure on health as a proportion of GDP has remained less than 2 per cent. The survey acknowledges that in the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) index developed by the World Bank, India ranks 157th according to per capita government spending on health and 25th among leading countries with a serious hunger situation .

The survey admits that India has the second highest number of undernourished people at 194.6 million persons (FAO, State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2015,). In India, 37 per cent of children under five in 15 states were stunted (NFHS-4), showing a fall of just five percentage points in a decade. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are the worst off, with 48 and 42 per cent respectively of children stunted. Unless children are provided the necessary micronutrients they need, they are unlikely to develop to the best of their potential. The fact that mid-day meal allocation has been increased by only Rs. 463.6 crore, or five per cent, and ICDS supplementary programme finds no mention in the budget, is a cause for concern.

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages is still far behind the target. For India to achieve this goal, it will have to reach the value of around 0.9 for its Health Index, which includes health status of population, quality of healthcare institutions and financial instruments for access to healthcare (insurance, etc.). Public expenditure on health in India has hovered around one per cent of the country’s GDP, and accounts for less than one third (33 per cent) of total health expenditure.

Though the budget has given a health cover of Rs 1,00,000 for each family which is welcome, this budget has not enhanced spending on health sector and both young children and adolescents are likely to be negatively impacted when it comes to out-of-pocket expenditure that the poorest families cannot afford.

Writing on the wall

Notwithstanding the dismal indicators of the well-being of the children, the survey limits the central government’s role to ‘policy making’, leaving the ‘gargantuan challenge’ of service delivery to the states.

Children’s wellbeing cannot be measured through ‘social infrastructure’ as the Modi Government seems to think, but by basic ‘human entitlements’. This requires a multi-pronged effort to counter multi-dimensional poverty by budgeting and providing for water, energy, food security, livelihood creation for the households, reducing vulnerabilities, ensuring equity and assuring a just governance framework.

The conclusion reached based on the Economic Survey and the Budget 2016-17 gives ample indication that Modi Government could not keep promises made to India’s largest segment of population.

The writer is Delhi based senior journalist and has worked on children’s rights issue for a long time . He has authored several books on children's problems in India . Email : [email protected]