In the budget speech of 2017-18, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had introduced outcome-based monitoring for Schemes for welfare of scheduled castes, scheduled tribe and minorities. Subsequently the nodal ministries – Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs ( MoTA) launched E-utthaan, a monitoring portal to get real-time data of performance and outcomes for all ministries and departments.

These portals can become a useful tool for analyzing the approach and programme implementation strategy of all ministries/ departments, which are earmarked for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC & ST) communities. The two monitoring portals have improved budget transparency with regard to implementation and monitoring, but at the same time, it reveals very little in terms of nature of allocations, priorities of the schemes, planned outcomes or outputs.

Most importantly, the data represented on the portals are misrepresented or a mismatch with the official documents of the ministries. These technical impediments make it difficult to link the priorities and targets of the ministries to actual outcomes of any given scheme hence measuring the impact of program for SC & ST communities.

Education justice

According to U-DISE (Unified District Information System) 2016, 4,83,87,652 (19.11%) Scheduled Castes and 2,45,76,992 (9.71%) Scheduled Tribe students have enrolled in School Education (I-XII) Institutions. AISHE (All India Survey of Higher Education) 2018-193 states that 52,80,361 (14.41%) Scheduled Castes and 19,13,864 (5.22%) Scheduled Tribe students across the country have enrolled in higher education institutions.

To address this gap in school education as well as the higher education in the SC, ST Budgets, the Department of School Education has allocated Rs 10,257.92 crore for SCs and Rs 5,831.51 crore for STs, and the Department of Higher Education has allocated Rs 3,207 crore for SCs and Rs 1,605 crore for STs for the financial year 2019-20.

In this FY 2019-20, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the nodal ministry for scheduled castes has Rs 3,845.09 crore to be spent for education, whereas the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for scheduled tribes has allocated Rs 1,953.81 crore to ensure the educational justice for STs.

Among all the schemes for school education in FY 2019 -20, Samagra Shiksha Abhigyan has the highest allocation of which Rs 7,264.4 crore and Rs 4232.69 crore are exclusively committed for SCs and STs respectively. In this entire Budget, for the Higher Education of SCs and STs, there are only two major schemes each.
 

1. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Ministry of Tribal Affairs have Post Matric Scholarships, which is a benchmark scheme to access higher education. It has given an allocation Rs 2,926.82 crore for SCs and Rs 1,613.5 croreore for STs in FY 2019-20).
2. The other set of Schemes are through UGC which offers various fellowships and scholarships for PhD, Post-Doctoral courses, has continuously decreased from 2014-15 to this year from Rs 602.85 crore to Rs 283 crore for SCs and Rs 439.03 crore to Rs 135 crore for STs.

In addition to the decrease in allocations, if we further unpack these schemes, and look at the nature of the scheme, they are general schemes and do not focus on the SCs and STs. They are not sufficiently planned to target for SCs and STs in the Annual Work Plans nor are they monitored to count the number of the SC, ST students that are being reached through these schemes.

This clearly shows it is allocated only for accounting purposes and not for real implementation. When we examine the approved budget and the utilised budgets, it is shocking to see that UGC spends about 55% of its approved budgets to schemes for SC, STs. This is a gross violation of the Finance Ministry of SC, ST Budget guidelines issues. If this is the fact for the education schemes, then in most of the other schemes, the reality could be far worse.

Land related scheme

As a lifeline, land plays a vital role in the life of SCs and STs mainly because they are agricultural workers and small-marginal landholders. The agriculture census of 2015-16 shows that scheduled castes operate in less than 9% and scheduled tribe in less than 11% of the country’s total agricultural land. From the same sources, it is also visible that the average size of operational land holding among SC and ST are 0.78 and 1.41 (in hectare), respectively.

Related to land, the 2019-20 Union Budget has provided only two schemes for SC, STs with an allocation of Rs 367.86 crore under SCC and Rs 221.60 crore under STC, respectively. The largest Scheme under SC, ST budget is the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisann) of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare which is Rs 12,450 crore for SCs and Rs 6450 crore for ST. This indeed is a great programme.

However, when we unpack this scheme, it has no targets for SC nor STs which is therefore only on paper accounting purpose with a mask of SC, ST budgets and has neither mechanisms to deliver to SCs nor STs. This is a denial of funds and diversion at the conception itself. On the ground level, the total percentages of SCs and ST’s casual labour (agriculture and non-agriculture) are 52.6% and 38.3 % while other social groups composed of only 21.6%.

Keeping the situation in mind, the Government should ensure the enhancement in the budget in access to land, not as general scheme, but a clear targeted scheme especially for SCs and STs. It will be good if the Income Support Schemes is re-designed with clear and strict guidelines and mechanisms for ensuring its access by SCs and STs. Otherwise, it will continue to be a denial to SC and STs and a continuing mirage.

Manual scavenging

One of the most demeaning practices that exist in the world is manual scavenging which continues unabated and the government does not show or seem serious enough to eliminate this completely. The legislation for the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation, 2013 does not take into account the cases, compensation and punishment in cases of sewer deaths.

It is a mandate of the National Commission for Safai Karamchari (NCSK) to conduct survey and document data from all states on the number of deaths since 1993. The latest annual report available from NCSK is of the year 2015-16 which states that ‘no person died in Sewerage work since 1993.

It is also mentioned that no sewer death has been reported by the local bodies i.e. EDMC, SDMC, NDMC, New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Jal Board and, similarly, many other states have submitted similar responses. However, the total number of deaths recorded by the NCSK across India from 1993 to 2018 amounts to 676.

Despite the national legislation on prohibition and rehabilitation of manual scavengers, there are constant lapses in the fund allocation and its disbursal. An amount of Rs 70 crore was allocated in FY 2018-19 under the Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers; however, this year Rs 110 crore has been allocated under this scheme.

Funds allocated under the scheme continue to remain on the government documents and do not reach the beneficiaries. Data from RTI reveals that for the FY 2015- 16, Rs 36 crore was allocated for manual scavengers’ rehabilitation was left unused, whereas for the year 2017-18, Rs 24 crore remained unutilized, and not a single amount of money has been utilized until September 22, 2017.

Atrocities against the community

The latest National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB) data available is of the year 2016 which reveals that 40,801 cases of crimes against Scheduled Castes and 6,568 cases of crimes against the Scheduled Tribes are registered reported and the charge-sheets were filed in around 78.3%. From the statistics it can be noted that there is decline in cases reported over a period of three years.

The rate of charge-sheet has continued to remain high across the period of three years. Though, the rates of conviction in the cases of crimes against scheduled castes have increased in the above-mentioned period. The total number of cases up for investigation including previous year’s cases amounts to 56,299 of the SCs and 9096 of the STs.

Cases in which trial were completed by 2016 are recorded to be 14,615 cases of the Scheduled Castes and 2,895 cases of the Scheduled Tribes. Out of 14,615 cases, only 3,753 cases resulted in conviction of the accused and a total of 10862 cases resulted in acquittal of the criminals. Total number of cases pending for trials by the end of the year 2016 amounts to 129831 cases and the data also clearly signals higher rate of atrocities against Dalit women and minor girl children with crimes such as rape, abduction and kidnapping are on the rise targeting Dalit women.

In FY 2018-19, the fund of Rs 403.72 crore was allocated and for the FY 2019-20, a fund of Rs 530 crore has been allocated under the Department of the Social Justice & Empowerment for the Strengthening of Machinery for Enforcement of Protection of Civil Rights Act 1995 and Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989.

With clear evidences which are the proof of delay in delivering justice and increase in cases of crimes against the SC & ST, with low conviction rate, high pendency rate, limited number of Special Courts & Public Prosecutors it is essential for the state to not only allocate more funds but also fulfill the mandates provided under the Act, invest in mechanisms like establishment of Exclusive Special Courts & Exclusive Special Public Prosecutors that are necessary for strengthening & ensuring better implementation of PCR and PoA Act which act as a watershed for the Dalit Adivasi community.

Adequate preventive measures to address violence in the atrocity prone district are absent.

Child rights

Children, despite constituting 29.50% (0-14 years) of the total population, remain one of the most neglected categories by the public financial planners. The total budget allocated for the welfare of children to various departments under Statement12 on ‘Allocation for the Welfare of Children’ is Rs 91644.29.crore, which was Rs79090.35 crore in FY2018-19 Budget.

In the Full Union Budget 2019-20, 3.28% out of total budget expenditure has been allocated for the welfare of children under various departments, marking 15.87% increase compared to the FY 2018-19.

However, a deeper analysis of the Government schemes for children under the Scheduled Caste Component (SCC) and Scheduled Tribe Component (STC) shows that there are only 20 schemes under SCC and 16 schemes under STC which are related to child welfare. The government has announced a total amount of Rs 17,920.92 crore for children’s welfare SCC and Rs 10 881.7 crore under the STC of the Full Budget 2019-20.

The overall percentage of allocation for SC children’s welfare against the total of SCC is 22.03% and for ST children, it is 20.58% out of total expenditure of STC. According to the Full Union Budget 2019-20 allocations, ‘Direct Allocations’ for SC and ST children is 79.19% and 82.05% respectively.

From the fact mentioned above, it is clear that there are still deficit of almost 20% allocation for the children in the allocation phase. It will be warm approach if the government can increase the targeted schemes allocation.

Courtesy: Counter View

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The Union budget presented on July 4, seems to have disappointed many communities including fisherworkers. The Kerala SwatantaraMatsyathozhilali Federation, a body of fisherworkerssaid that the Union Budget has let the fishers down. The Federation’s president Kackson Pollayil said that the budget neglected them, denying their pleas for subsidy on kerosene and diesel and a waiver of their debts. The request for a cut in the GST levied on fishing equipment and compensation to those affected by natural disasters was also neglected, reportedly.

Pollayil called for steps to prevent foreign fishing vessels from fishing in Indian waters. He also asked for a ban on pair and bull trawling. Pair trawling has been reportedly been the reason for low catch in the Malabar coast. National Fish Workers’ Forum general secretary blamed unscientific construction of breakwaters for sea erosion.

While presenting the budget, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman announced a new scheme which will promote processing in the fishery sector and allocated an estimated Rs. 3737 crore for a new ministry namely Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Although, the emphasis of the schemes appears to be to “address critical gaps in the value chain, including infrastructure, modernisation, traceability, production, productivity, post-harvest management, and quality control”, however there hardly seems any emphasis on protecting the lives and livelihood of traditional fisherfolks who are impacted by large scale fishing and climate change.

The scheme will be known as PradhanMantriMatsyaSampadaYojana (PMMSY) and has been established under the Department of Fisheries. Of the total budget allocated to the new ministry, Rs 2,932.25 crore is estimated to be spent on various schemes to promote animal husbandry and dairying, while Rs 804.75 crore for the fisheries sector in the current fiscal.

However, fisherfolks have different concerns. A fisherman from Chaliyam, whose fishing boat was destroyed during the Kerala floods, reportedly incurred a loss of over Rs. 1 lakh, but the compensation sanctioned to him was only Rs. 9000. Federation secretary Abdul Rasik said the compensation for boats damaged during the rescue operations were sanctioned only two weeks ago. The leaders of the two organisations plan to meet the Union Fisheries Minister to highlight the issues faced by the traditional fishing community.

Earlier, in 2018, in a Dangerous Setback to Coastal Planning and Safeguards in India, the Union Cabinet had approved Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2018.

In a press release issued by the press information bureau, it was confirmed that the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2018 has been approved by the union cabinet. This executive legislature will replace the CRZ 2011.

The draft CRZ 2018 put out for public comments was opposed strongly by fisher groups on grounds that commercial interests like industries, tourism and real estate were prioritised over coastal ecology and livelihoods. The current development indicates that none of the feedback offered by fisherfolk and civil society has been incorporated.

Major Dilutions included –

• De-freezing of FSI in coastal areas, making way for high rises.
• No Development Zones reduced.
• Special considerations for tourism, defence and strategic projects.
• Decentralising CRZ clearance procedures.
• Opening up rural coastal areas for buildout.  

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Even as many parts of the county suffer from drought, the new government at the centre has allocated a mere Rs 60,000 crores for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) for the ongoing financial year. This is Rs 1,084 crore less than the revised budget estimate for 2018-19. Expenditure would have been much higher last year had the government met the full demand for work and made timely payment of wages. Also, almost Rs 4,000 crore from this year’s budget was used for clearing previous years’ liabilities. This leaves only about Rs 56,000 crore for the ongoing year.

To ration the limited funds, the central government does not release them regularly, which in turn delays the payment of wages. It also does not pay the full compensation amount entitled to workers, or unemployment allowance in case of denial of work. Due to the government’s unwillingness to allocate adequate funds for NREGA, the notified NREGA wage rates are much lower than the state-wise statutory wage rates. This has made NREGA work unremunerative in most parts of the country.

The widespread violations of workers’ entitlements due to inadequate funds for NREGA are worsened by the use of inappropriate technologies in the implementation of the programme. But instead of conducting an honest assessment of the impact of technological interventions in NREGA, the central government has been repeating false claims about the benefits of these interventions. Many of these claims, particularly those related to the advantages of linking Aadhaar with NREGA, are discussed in chapter 10 of this year’s Economic Survey.

The Economic Survey draws heavily on a working paper titled “A Friend Indeed: Does The Use of Digital Identity Make Welfare Programs Truly Counter-Cyclical?” by Sumit Agarwal, Shradhey Prasad, Nishka Sharma, and Prasanna L Tantri. As explained by Sakina Dhorajiwala, Anmol Somanchi, and Rajendran Narayanan, the conclusions of this paper are based on incorrect assumptions and show their ignorance of ground realities of NREGA.

The first misleading claim is that the integration of NREGA with “Aadhaar Linked Payments” system in 2015 streamlined the wage payment system. This claim ignores the significant reduction in siphoning off of wages after the switch from cash payments to bank/post office payments, which began as early as in 2008. It also disregards the widespread disruptions caused due to the forced and hasty linkage of NREGA with Aadhaar. A staggering number of wage payments are rejected due to reasons such as errors in the entry of Aadhaar numbers in the NREGA Management Information System (MIS), linking of Aadhaar with wrong bank accounts and the mysterious issue of “Inactive Aadhaar,” which even the government is unable to explain. In order to meet bank account opening targets, many NREGA workers have been forced to open multiple accounts. In Aadhaar Linked Payments, a worker’s wages are credited in the bank account that was last linked with Aadhaar. But workers are often unaware which of their accounts is linked with Aadhaar, and thus run pillar to post in search of their wages.

The working paper and Economic Survey also argue that Aadhaar Linked Payments have reduced the ratio of delayed wage payments. What they refer to delays are actually only those that take place till the Fund Transfer Order (FTO) is generated. Aadhaar has no role to play in reducing these delays. Further, significant delays take place in the processing of FTOs by the central government, transfer of wages into workers’ accounts and withdrawal of wages from banks. The government has no estimates of these delays and thus workers are not even compensated for them. According to an analysis conducted two years ago based on a sample of 9 million NREGA transactions, it was found that after a FTO is generated, on an average it takes 50 days for the wages to get credited in the worker’s account.

Based on the incorrect claim that Aadhaar has reduced wage payment delays, it is argued that the demand and supply of work increased in drought affected areas after 2015. There is no acknowledgement of the role played by the public interest litigation filed by Swaraj Abhiyan in 2015 which demanded immediate drought relief measures. It was only after the Supreme Court issued stern orders that the central government was forced to allocate additional funds to increase the scale of work in drought affected areas and clear pending wages.

The ES claims that “the number of beneficiaries and the funds transferred under DBT under the Scheme has jumped manifold from 2015-16 to 2018-19”. The ‘manifold jump’ is nothing to be proud of since, the whole “Aadhaar Linking” drive has been a coercive process. Moreover, the figures cited in the ES hide the reality of large scale exclusions and chaos on the groundas a result of Aadhaar linking.

The analysis of NREGA’s performance in the Economic Survey seems politically motivated. Facts have been distorted to imply that no effort was made to improve the delivery of the programme before 2015 and that all technological innovations introduced in NREGA by the NDA government have been successful. There is no acknowledgment of the growing disinterest of NREGA workers from the programme due to unremunerative wages and unpredictability in wage payments.

NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and People’s Action for Employment Guarantee demand the central government allocates at least Rs 88,000 crores for NREGA (this estimate is based on the projected demand for work available on the official NREGA website, adjusted for inflation). Also, the government needs to conduct an honest evaluation of how Aadhaar and other technological interventions impact the implementation of NREGA and immediately discontinue those initiatives that violate workers’ entitlements.

For further information, please contact Anindita (+91 9871832323) or Sakina (+91 9833419391) or email at nrega.sangharsh.morcha@gmail.com.

Abhay Kumar (9845371493), Anuradha Talwar (9433002064), Arundhati Dhuru (9919664444), Gangaram Paikra (9977462084), Kamayani Swami (9771950248), Mukesh Nirvasat (9468862200), Neeta Hardikar (9825412387), Nirmala Tammineni (9848930031) and Richa Singh (9452232663) on behalf of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha. 

Courtesy: Counter Current
 

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The ruling party has been known for self-laudatory praises on literally any occasion that it can get hold of. And when it comes to the Union Budget 2019, chances of this happening are even more. Former Union minister, JayantSinhasaid on Monday that the BJP brought the economy back on track and had transformed it from “Passenger train” to “Rajdhani train”. Congress MPs have used cricketing analogies to criticise the budget, saying, it’s a case of “unnecessary defensive strokes, dropped catches and was marred with no-balls instead of bold boundaries”. 
Year after year, some groups have been at the receiving end of these so called “dropped catches” and “no balls”.
 
Of India’s total population, as many as 25 percent belong to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). These groups have been out of the development paradigm of most governments, over decades. This continues even today. There is a need to understand the importance of adequate funding to bridge the development gap and the sub plans that were/are crucial to bridge the divide.

According to the 2017 multidimensional poverty index report, the poverty ratio was 41.30% for SC/ST groups in 2011. However, according to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the percentage of SCs classifying as below poverty line in rural areas was 31.5% in 2011-12, as against 15.5% of other communities. In urban areas in 2011-12, it was 21.7% versus 8.2% for other communities.

According to the Tendulkar Committee, the monthly per capita expenditure was Rs 1,252 in rural areas and Rs 2,028 in urban areas.

In order to unravel the Union budget and what it holds for marginalised communities, especially SCs and STs, the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) has come up with “Dalit Adivasi Budget Analysis 2019-20”. This exercise is an annual one. It looked at the budget at three levels: allocations, proportion of targeted schemes which directly benefit SCs and STs and budget credibility which measures the gap between approved budget and utilized budget. It noted that contrary to the slogan of “SabkaVishwas” (everyone’s trust) along with Sab kaVikas (Development for all), the budget reflected several “unparalleled declarations which needs to be demystified.”

The analysis predicted that if one places the figures allocated for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes and the number of schemes targeted in a background of extreme deprivation faced by these communities, the figures don’t go far in “addressing the development gap between the SC/ST and the rest of the population.”

In the budget, while Rs. 81341 crores has been allocated for the SCs, Rs. 52885 crores has been allocated for the STs. Number of schemes allocated for the former stands at 329 and at 338 for the latter. However, the report said that only 42% of the total schemes targeted for SCs and 40.8% for the STs will reach the communities respectively.

The NCDHR report draws attention to the grave issue of killing critical schemes by depleting them of funds. It says, “Another striking feature of 2019-20 budget is the systemic undermining of number of critical schemes by starving them of necessary funds”. For example, schemes like Post Matric Scholarship (PMS), University Grants Commission (UGC), Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour, National Fellowship for SC, KendriyaVidyalayaSanghathan, NavodayaVidyalayaSamiti, IGNOU Open University, Grants to Voluntary Organisations, land records modernization etc. which are few of the direct benefitting schemes that are denied necessary funds for SC & ST development.

Notably, the allocations for nodal ministries i.e. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been significantly reduced compared to last year. Apart from this, the other critical Ministries which have witnessed steep declines in SC development are Rural development, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Drinking water & sanitation. Similarly, from the ST perspective, the critical ministries are MSME and Drinking water & sanitation with substantial decrease.

There is marginal increase in allocations for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA). The report noted that in a scenario where the overall increase in allocations are as high as 36% and 28% for SC & ST respectively, the nodal ministries of MSJE &MoTA are subjected to “major budget cuts” despite the existing NITI AAYOG guidelines for Earmarking of Funds for on implementation of SCSP/TSP.

The report busted the myth of budgetary allocation to a large number of schemes. It lamented, “Good schemes are starved of funds and irrelevant schemes’ allocations are increasing. This year, out of 329 schemes for SC, 233 schemes are non-targeted and without any comprehensive strategy to give benefits to the community. Similarly, only 71 out of 338 schemes for STs have the potential to give direct benefits, while the rest of them are general in nature.”

Income Support Scheme which is renamed as PradhanMantriKisanSammanNidhi with an allocation of Rs.12,450 Cr, SamagraShiksha with an allocation of Rs. 7264 Cr, National Rural Health Mission with allocation of Rs.6611.47 Cr all are general in nature. Here it also includes the obsolete schemes which are absolutely not relevant to the community. In the FY 2019-20 out of 52 major schemes there are 26 general schemes amounting to Rs. 69,065 Cr and 12 obsolete schemes amounting to Rs 8189 Cr.

Another highlight of the budget that the report pointed towards was the reduction in Post matric scholarships and funds for higher education. It noted, “It was disappointing to see that the allocation for PMS was reduced from Rs 3000 Cr in RE 2018-19 to Rs. 2926.82 Cr in FY 2019-20 for SCs and similarly, for STs it is reduced from Rs 1643.30 Cr in FY 2018-19 RE to Rs 1613.50 Cr in FY 2019-20.” The funds allocated for Higher Education for SCs and STs, have been shockingly reduced- UGC has reduced by 23.5 percent while IGNOU has reduced by 50 percent.
 
NCDHR’s report also pointed out that the UGC spends about 55% of its approved budgets to schemes for SC, STs. which is a gross violation of the Finance Ministry of SC, ST Budget guidelines issues. The report highlighted the curious phenomenon of allocation of funds in the name of marginalised groups, to sectors which have no relevance to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. For eg.the total allocation under the Depart. of Telecommunication for both SC and ST is a total of Rs.Cr. 2623.89 which is allocated for schemes like ‘optical fibre cable based network for Defence Services’, ‘Compensation to Service Providers’ which has no direct benefit to SCs or STs but only a general scheme.
 
Despite the threat of eviction to forest dwelling communities following a Supreme Court Order, ironically, Rs. 35 crores has been allocated to Tiger Project from the STC budget.
 
Atrocities against Dalits, especially women and youth have seen a spurt since the government came to power in 2014. The report analysed the fund allocation in this area. In FY 2018-19, a fund of Rs. 403.72 Cr was allocated and for the FY 2019-20, a fund of Rs. 530 Cr has been allocated under the Department of the Social Justice & Empowerment for the Strengthening of Machinery for Enforcement of Protection of Civil Rights Act 1995 and Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989. The report said that, “With clear evidences which are the proof of delay in delivering justice and increase in cases of crimes against the SC & ST, with low conviction rate, high pendency rate, limited number of Special Courts & Public Prosecutors it is essential for the state to not only allocate more funds but also fulfil the mandates provided under the Act, invest in mechanisms like establishment of Exclusive Special Courts & Exclusive Special Public Prosecutors that are necessary for strengthening & ensuring better implementation of PCR and PoA Act which act as a watershed for the Dalit Adivasi community”
 
On the grave issue of manual scavenging, an issue which has plagued the country even after so many years and several people continue to die, the report pointed out that the legislation for the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation, 2013 doesn’t take into account the cases, compensation and punishment in cases of sewer deaths.

Though the state local bodies such as EDMC, SDMC, NDMC, New Delhi Municipal Council etc. have reported zero sewer deaths in their reports. But the total number of deaths recorded by National Commission for SafaiKaramchari (NCSK), a body which has a mandate to conduct surveys and document data from all states, between 1993 to 2018, is as many as 676 deaths. On this serious matter, the report noted, “Despite the national legislation on prohibition & Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers, there are constant lapses in the fund allocation & its disbursal. An amount of Rs. 70 Cr was allocated in FY 2018-19 under the Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers however, this year Rs. 110 Cr has been allocated under this scheme. Funds allocated under the scheme continue to remain on the government documents and does not reach the beneficiaries. Data from RTI7 reveals that for the FY 2015- 16, Rs. 36 crore was allocated for manual scavengers’ rehabilitation was left unused, whereas for the year 2017-18, Rs. 24 crore remained unutilized, and not a single amount of money has been utilized until September 22, 2017.”

The report has recommended several measures on SC and ST budget policies. Some of these include but aren’t limited to, a legislative framework to bridge the gap between SC/STs and rest of the population and to ensure financial inclusion, sufficient Budgetary allocations for enabling community participation through Online Portals, direct benefits to SC/ST communities, increasing allocation of funds for “The Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS)” and to provide adequate schemes to ensure this practice is eliminated, release of unused funds and arrears in Higher Education, timely disbursement of Post-matric scholarship.” There is also a demand for adequate budgetary allocation to meet the demand from students of the SC and ST communities who would like to pursue higher education in universities abroad. Funds should also be allocated for high quality residential schools for SC & ST children, gender budgeting, child budget etc. says the report.
 
Read the complete report here:

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Less than a month before budget announcements, newspapers splashed the news, “Modi government announces scholarships for 5 crore minority students in next 5 years”. The messaging before polls was that through these scholarships, the Modi government is trying to create an atmosphere of healthy inclusive growth by eradicating the “disease of communalism” and appeasement politics.

In a complete erasure of the fact that scholarships for minority students were a flagship program of the UPA government, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had then  tolda rather non-questioning media that scholarships will be “provided” for pre-matric, post-matric, and professional and technical courses.

Naqvi said, “To ensure socio-economic-educational empowerment of minorities especially girls through ‘3Es- Education, Employment and Empowerment’, various scholarships including pre-matric, post-matric, merit-cum-means etc. will be provided to five crore students in next 5 years”

Soon as the Modi government came to power, PM Modi expressed his intention to win Sabka Vishwas (everyone’s trust). But the buzz on inclusive governance, especially education for minority students, that too Muslims in specific has remained at the level of just that..a buzz.

When Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget on Friday, the word ‘minority’ didn’t feature even once in her long speech. The erasure of the word from the speech was reflected in the intention as well. Not only was there no increase in the outlay for the welfare of minorities, but also it reduced the allocations for scholarship scheme for minorities.

The right to education is every child’s right. The Pre and Post matric have been designed to support children from low income backgrounds who face additional vulnerability due to the location of their communities and religious backgrounds.
The Sachar committee report was released in 2006 and was significant in the study of the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims. As per the Prime Minister’s 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities, a new provision was made for scholarships to minority students at the elementary and higher levels of education across all parts of the country.

The pre-matric scholarship scheme was started to “form the foundation for their[children’s] educational attainment and provide a level playing field in the competitive employment arena” as it is held that “empowerment through education, which is one of the objectives of this scheme, has the potential to lead to upliftment of the socio economic conditions of the minority communities,” It also earmarks 30% of the beneficiaries to be female children.

However, it was subsequently found out that this scheme was not operating in West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Gujarat, states having sizeable Muslim populace.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s stand on the Sachar Committee has dilly dallied through the years. Ever since the report saw the light of the day, it faced opposition from the BJP and its allies. However, in a complete U-turn, the current Prime Minister, who was then campaigning before the 2014 elections, made a complete U-turn and had said that Sachar Committee report’s findings will “form the basis of the BJP’s policy orientation in the future.”

Clear linkages to the poverty of minorities and absence of access and deliverance to scholarships have been established in the past. An exclusive three part study by SabrangIndia found out that all the larger minorities namely Muslims, Sikhs and Christians have experienced a decline in the outreach of the scholarships while Buddhists have seen a massive decline in states where their population is significant.

Read Sabrangindia’s exclusive three part study carried in October-November 2018 may be read here:

Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas a Farce, as Direct Benefit Transfers Spell Doom for Minority Students
Modi Regime squeezes out ALL Minorities, Even Buddhists, from Scholarships
Decline in Minority Scholarships in all Poll Bound States Except Telangana
 
In the budget presented recently, the Minority Affairs Ministry (MFA) was allocated Rs. 4700 crores, same as previous fiscal. In the year 2017-18, Rs 4,195 crore was allocated to the ministry, while in 2016-17, Rs 3,800 crore was allocated.
Not only has there been an apathetic stand in allocating funds, but also in the outreach of the scholarship itself. A secondary research study undertaken by SabrangIndia highlighted how the total number of beneficiaries were targeted to be 30 lakh but only about 12% of them or 3,69,549 were actually benefited in the first quarter of the fiscal till June 30, 2017.

Each year, every ministry’s budget gets enhanced by 10 percent taking into account inflation and other factors but the budget allocated for minority scholarships. This wasn’t the case this time. Moreover, apparently, the number of Pre-matric and Post-matric scholarships were reduced to 55 lakhs in 2017-18 as compared to 86 lakhs in 2013-14 during the UPA government’s regime.

In the new budget, the allocation for scholarships has also been reduced to Rs 2,362 crores from Rs 2,451 crores last year. The grants for pre-matric and post-matric scholarships have been reduced from Rs 1,296 crores last year to Rs 1,220 crores this year, and from Rs 500 crore to Rs 496 crore this year, respectively.

The budget for the Maulana Azad Foundation was also reduced to Rs 90 crores from 123 crores and also Maulana Azad Fellowship budget was marginally cut down to 153 crores from 155 crores.Two years back, the Haj subsidy was withdrawn in the name of providing education to Muslim youth, however, the same isn’t reflected in the Budget allocations.

The SabrangIndia study had noted that the minority coverage in every state [Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram] has declined over the period 2011-12 to 2017-18 although the level and rates of declines are different. This had to do with the poor socio-economic conditions prevailing in the state.

The problems inherent within the scheme itself, get exacerbated due to the apathy of the government and its clear blind sightedness towards minorities.

A Time cover called had called PM Modi the Divider-in-Chief. Though PM Modi won the elections, his reputation of favouring majoritarian politics couldn’t be washed off. It was important that a PR exercise, much like the ones taken with respect to government schemes was required to build the image of a leader who’s not only ‘pro-development’ but also ‘pro-minorities’. To this extent there has been a lot of lip service. Modi made public his dream of seeing Muslim youth carrying the Quran in one hand and a computer in the other.

However, the blatant erasure of even the word minorities is a reminiscent of a time when the BJP, along with the RSS disapproved of the establishment of the Minorities Commission and had pleaded that a Human Rights Commission was preferable, giving and impression that the two are conflictual. Today, times have changed. Such an opposition isn’t possible anymore in public discourse. While the discourse is developed to favour everyone’s development, clearly minority students are left out of the paradigm.
 

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We compared finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech from July 5, 2019, with former finance minister Arun Jaitley’s speech when the party came to power in 2014. 

Jaitley’s speech was 16,489 words long and lasted 2 hours, 7 minutes and 42 seconds. Sitharaman’s speech was 20,223 words lasting 2 hours, 9 minutes and 13 seconds. In places, the pace of the speech differed. So, we analysed the word-count as well.

We calculated the ratio of words spent on each topic to the full word-count of the speech. We derived the words used on each issue largely from the sections into which the speech itself is divided, barring cases such as agriculture that did not have a separate section in 2019 unlike in 2014.

Here’s how the two finance ministers chose to use their time announcing the Union budget: 

Agriculture:
Nirmala Sitharaman spent around 3 minutes, 1.11% of the duration of her speech, on agriculture, discussing the potential of agricultural produce to generate revenue from “allied activities” such as the generation of renewable energy and sale of timber and bamboo.

In 2014, Arun Jaitley had spent 8 minutes, 7.22% of his budget speech, on agriculture, outlining the government’s plan to improve the agriculture industry technologically, set up universities and research centres for the same, and create substantial programmes for the extension of long- and short-term agricultural credit.

Sitharaman spent around 16 minutes, 6.16% of her speech, talking about rural development, two-thirds of which focused on affirming the success of the government’s schemes over the past five years and outlining the current government’s goals for the future. She announced one allocation: Rs 80,250 crore to the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, as part of her speech on rural development.

In comparison, Jaitley spent 3.5 minutes, 2.63% of his speech, on rural development, speaking about the National Livelihood Mission, Rural Housing and the Backward Region Grant Fund to develop basic infrastructure in backward areas.

Taxes, Business and Finance:
Sitharaman spoke for 36.5 minutes (60%) as compared to Jaitley (30%), who spoke for 36 minutes on taxes.

Apart from “announcing” a slew of tax sops that were previously announced by her predecessor finance minister Piyush Goyal in February 2019, Sitharaman also announced a 3% surcharge on income over Rs 2 crore per annum, and a 7% surcharge on income over Rs 5 crore per annum. She extended a 25% corporate tax to companies with a turnover of up to Rs 400 crore.

Aside from taxes, Sitharaman spent nearly 20 minutes, 6% of her speech, outlining the government’s policies for business, including the banking and financial sectors.

In comparison, Jaitley spent close to 5 minutes, 10.1% of his speech, describing programmes for the business class. 

This included talking about foreign direct investment, bank capitalisation, public sector units’ capital expenditure, instruments such as real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), the eBiz platform (a business-to-business commerce platform), micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and the finance policy.

Healthcare:
Including the expenditure by states, India spends 1.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health. This is still is still much below the 2.5% of GDP goal set by the National Health Policy of 2017, and even the 2010 target of 2% of GDP, as IndiaSpend reported in April 2017. Nepal spends 2.3% of its GDP on health while Sri Lanka spends 2%, data show, as IndiaSpend reported in January 2018.

The word ‘health’ appeared in Sitharaman’s speech thrice: first, while outlining the government’s vision for the coming decade; second, while praising the impact of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan; and third, while describing tax incentives for individuals to spend on healthcare.

Jaitley had spent more than 3 minutes, 2.15% of his speech, describing the government’s healthcare programmes, including setting up new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in various states, as well as government medical colleges and model rural healthcare research centres.

Education:
Sitharaman spent a larger proportion of her speech discussing education (5 minutes, 2.42%) than Jaitley did in 2014 (2 minutes, 1.46%).

Sitharaman’s speech focused on higher education, and the ‘Khelo India’ programme.

She called for the creation of a commission of higher education in India, and allocated Rs 400 crore for the formation of “World Class Institutions”. Cuts in education spending as a share of total expenditure, announced by Piyush Goyal in the interim budget, as IndiaSpend reported on February 5, 2019, were left unaddressed in her speech.

Jaitley’s speech focused more on primary and middle schooling, including the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and a teachers’ training programme. 

Renewable energy:
Sitharaman mentioned the word ‘renewable’ twice in her entire speech; neither reference dealt with any government programme. Towards greener energy alternatives, nearly 1% of her speech was devoted to electric vehicles, in which she expounded upon tax incentives and government investment to promote the use of electric vehicles.

Jaitley had spent close to a minute, 1.3% of his speech, outlining plans regarding renewable energy for the implementation of ultra mega solar power projects in five states, and the construction of a Green Energy Corridor. He mentioned ‘climate change’ on three occasions and the word ‘environment’ once in his speech.

Ganga rejuvenation:
The discussion about the Ganga has diverged between 2014 and 2019.

Sitharaman spent around a minute, 0.59% of her speech, on the Ganga, and did not mention the National Mission for Clean Ganga, launched in 2011. Instead, she predicted that with increased focus on developing the navigational capacity of the river, the movement of cargo would increase by four times in the next four years.

Jaitley spent around a minute as well, 1.19% of his speech, on the Ganga, outlining his plans for navigation projects on the river and a Ganga Conservation Mission, then budgeted at Rs 2,037 crore, including an non-resident Indian (NRI) fund.

Urban issues:
Jaitley spent nearly 4 minutes, 3.37% of his speech, introducing the government’s urban programmes, laying out a vision for increased shared investment, low-cost housing, slum development, the Atal Mission For Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the Smart Cities Mission.

Sitharaman spent close to half that amount (3 minutes, 1.85%) focusing on urban matters. She congratulated the achievements of the urban housing scheme and called for more investment for transport infrastructure via public-private partnerships, including metro-lines and suburban railways. She did not mention either smart cities or the AMRUT programme.

Water:
Sitharaman spent around 1.5 minutes, 1.12% of her speech, on water, an issue that is critical in the face of consecutive drought and increased scarcity, as IndiaSpend reported (here and here). She announced the merger of the ministries of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation into the Jal Shakti Mantralaya. The Har-Ghar-Jal and Jal Jeevan Mission will ensure piped water access to all households in India by 2024, she said. 

Jaitley had spent 37 seconds, 0.42% of his speech discussing water in 2014, describing projects as the National Rural Drinking Water Programme, including treatment of sewage and industrial effluents, and de-contamination from flouride, arsenic, etc. in both urban and rural areas.

(Mehta, a second-year political science undergraduate at the University of Chicago, is an intern at IndiaSpend.)

We welcome feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. We reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.

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Image Courtesy: TechGig Bureau

The first budget of the second Modi Government presented by Nirmala Sitharaman is nothing short of a payback gift after the elections to corporate India and foreign financial interests, says the CPI-M in its responses. The Budget and the speech were full of several promises and commitments that would help big corporate capital and the wealthy to strengthen their grip on the Indian economy and foster greater integration of the Indian economy with international financial markets. There is nothing  in the budget for working Indians, the farmers (kisans) and workers,  who have been left to fend for themselves in a world of shrinking opportunities for employment and livelihood states the press release issued today.

The finance minister’s speech listed a long menu of pro-corporate ‘reforms’ – opening up the Indian economy even more to foreign portfolio and direct investment (including the pension sector), creating a ‘financeable’ model for highways, promoting PPP in several areas including railways and metro development, etc. and even commercialization and financialisation of social welfare through a ‘Social Stock Exchange’.

There were no references, however, to the issues of remunerative prices and debt relief that India’s farmers are in desperate need of. On labour, the creation of a more anti-labour labour code was also presented as a ‘reform’.

While all of these were talked about, the FM’s speech was generally short of any real details regarding the revenue measures and expenditure commitments of the Union Government for 2019-20 and was completely silent on the problems of economic slowdown, agrarian distress, industrial stagnation and joblessness that everyone knows currently afflict the Indian economy.

As regards the actual Budget, the Finance Minister chose to not disclose the actual figures for revenues and expenditures for 2018-19 even though they are available by now. Instead the revised estimates presented in the Interim Budget on 1 February were retained in the final Budget – obviously in order to conceal the verifiable fact that the actuals of both revenues and expenditures in the previous year were significantly lower than in the Budget Estimates and even the Revised Estimates of the Interim Budget. This manipulation of the Budget accounts only serves to establish that the expenditure commitments for 2019-20 lack credibility as they will be cut if needed to meet fiscal deficit targets.

The estimates of gross revenues from Central taxes for 2019-20 have been reduced relative to the Interim Budget by almost Rs. 91,000 crores, and 40 per cent of this loss will have to be borne by State Governments. The reduction in estimated revenue collections is attributable to reduced projections for GST (by nearly Rs. 98000 crores) and Income Tax (Rs. 51,000 crores) – an indirect admission of the failure of the so-called reform measures of the Government that it had claimed would improve tax compliance.

What is shocking is that instead of addressing the fundamental problems in the taxation system and raising more resources from direct taxes except through extremely piecemeal measures – the Finance Minister has chosen to give several tax concessions to the corporate sector even while burdening the common people with additional excise duties on petrol and diesel to the tune of Rs. 2 per litre. Hitting at the public sector is the Government’s chosen additional route for raising resources. On the one hand disinvestment of public sector enterprises to the tune of Rs. 1.05 lakh crores is being planned. Further, PSEs will be bled by squeezing more of their profits out of them for the Government – and this amount has been raised from Rs. 1.36 lakh crores in the Interim Budget to 1.64 lakh crores in the final one. Even after all of this, the projected figures will keep the expenditure to GDP ratio the same!

The budget shows very little increase in spending for people. The total percentage of subsidies as per cent of total expenditure have remained almost unchanged at about 12 per cent. The first Woman Finance Minister of the country had presented a budget in which the expenditure on women has fallen from 5.1 per cent to 4.9 per cent of the total budget. Even the Nirbhaya Fund for women’s safety has not seen hardly any increase. There has been a marginal increase in spending on welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes but this continues to be much less than their share in the population. Only 2.9 per cent for welfare of Scheduled Castes and 1.9 per cent of total expenditure for welfare of Scheduled Tribes. There is a decline in allocation for Umbrella Scheme for Scheduled Castes by 2000 crores. Share of allocations for the Ministry of Minority Affairs has remained unchanged. In the context where government’s own statistics are showing a massive increase in unemployment, the Finance Minister has cut the allocation for MGNREGA by Rs. 1000 crores as compared to the revised estimates for last year. Spending on even the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, First Modi Government’s flagship programme, has been reduced by about 4500 crores.

The Union Budget for 2019-20 reflects the complete denial by the Government of the real economic situation of the country, which is living proof of the inability of a private capital led development process to either address the agrarian crisis or create employment opportunities outside it. This 2019-20 budget, therefore, is bound to mount further economic burdens on the vast majority of our people.

The CPI(M) calls upon the Indian people to join the protests that are bound to emerge in the coming days against the various aspects of these anti-people proposals in order to force the government to adopt policies aimed at improving people’s livelihood.
 

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The central government allocated Rs. 90,594 crore for children in Budget 2019, a meagre 0.01-percentage-point increase to 3.25 per cent of the overall Budget compared to last year, according to a report by the non-government organisation Child Rights and You (CRY).
 
Children constitute nearly 40 per cent of India’s population, yet the funds allocated for their education, development, health and protection remained almost constant, the analysis noted.
 
The largest chunk (68 per cent) went towards education, followed by development (26 per cent), health (3 per cent) and protection (2 per cent). While allocation for education fell 1.1 percentage points, the allocation for protection increased 0.6 percentage points from last year.
 
The nation in 2011 had 10.1 million child labourers aged 5-14, according to census records. The estimate now is that there are 12.7 million toiling without access to a proper education.
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in a budget handed down earlier this month reduced funding to help stem child labour to US$14 million from last year’s US$17 million.
 
This will adversely impact the federal National Child Labour Project that aims to offer free education, meals and health care to these children, according to church leaders and rights activists.
 
“Is there any other problem greater than this in India at present?” asked Bishop Alex Vadakumthala, who heads the Indian bishops’ office for labour.
 
Just because children cannot vote should not mean they don’t deserve to be able to have a decent existence, Bishop Vadakumthala said, adding that there was no clue as to why the budget allocation was reduced.
 
India has a law that prohibits employing children below the age of 18. But with lax enforcement, children continue to work in roadside restaurants and small-scale industries, the bishop said.
 
“There have been no steps to seriously implement the law,” Bishop Vadakumthala said. “The problem is that the government isn’t taking the issue seriously.”
 
The law has provisions to punish those who employ children with jail terms of up to two years and a fine or US$715 or both.
 
Puja Marwaha, chief executive of the non-government organisation Child Rights and You (CRY), told ucanews.com that the government’s 2030 Vision goal to make India a developed nation had failed to adopt a comprehensive response to combat child labour.

Just because children don’t vote, it doesn’t mean that their welfare doesn’t matter.
 
The February budget was the last one before national elections due in April-May, but it had no specific scheme for the welfare of children who constitute some 40 per cent India’s 1.2 billion people, she said.
 
Balbir Singh, also a child rights activist, said the actual number of child labourers in India could be double the official estimate.
 
Fear of punishment or of being stopped from going to workforce parents and even children to lie about their actual age and employment, Singh said.
 
“You can find children working everywhere in the country; be it in construction, vehicle repair, domestic work, carpet making, selling cigarettes on the roadside,” Singh said. “But, ironically, the government isn’t acting to end this.”
 
J.P. Dutta, a social activist based in Jammu, said government alone cannot address the issue effectively and that social mobilization and community participation remain vital for the eradication of child labour.
 
“There has to be a public interest,” he said. “An extensive awareness campaign is needed, and budgetary provisions must be made for it.”
 
Father Jaison Vadassery, secretary of the Indian bishops’ labour office, told ucanews.com that church people in India are already conducting awareness campaigns to educate people against tolerating child labour.
 
However, he believes that a more effective government system is needed to eradicate the social evil. “Until steps are taken to strictly implement the ban on child labour, the situation will not change for the better,” Father Vadassery said.
 
With inputs from IndiaSpends and Ucanews.com
 

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Image Courtesy: IANS Mumbai: Farmers participate in a protest march.

This took the share of the agriculture ministry in the total union budget to 5.2%, a benchmark succeeding governments will be compelled to match for political reasons. For context, the share has been around 2.3%-2.4% since 2014-15, when the BJP came to power.
 
However, this unprecedented hike in allocation will be inadequate to fight the ongoing agricultural crisis that has led to widespread farm agitations in India. Our analysis of the budget allocation for the sector shows that the amount provisioned for various agricultural schemes, such as the critical irrigation mission, is inadequate. The new income security scheme is short-sighted and inadequate, providing eligible farmers just Rs 500 per month or Rs 3.5 per person per day (considering a household size of five)–not enough to buy a cup of tea, as has been pointed out. It also offers less effective coverage than the Odisha and Telangana income support schemes whose success inspired it.

Not enough to compensate for long years of neglect

In an era of record harvests, prices of agricultural produce have crashed, unpaid agricultural loans have grown, and 600 million Indians who depend on farming struggle to get by, as IndiaSpend reported on November 30, 2018.

The root cause of the agricultural crisis is the perennial neglect of farmers and the deficient policies implemented over the last two decades. Farmers have been demanding the expansion of public provisioning and definitive steps towards the proper implementation of programmes such as Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, the flagship programme for the agriculture sector, and more flexibility for states to adopt interventions needed to address local concerns.

The continued low priority accorded to public spending on agriculture has resulted in severe gaps in the implementation of schemes with huge shortages of human resources, particularly in agriculture extension services that provide critical information on agricultural practices and schemes to farmers.

Agriculture faced two drought years in succession–2014-15 and 2015-16–when the average growth in the sector was just 0.1% per annum. Data show that over these years the ratio of allocation for this sector to gross domestic product (GDP) remained in the range of 0.3 to 0.4% during 2014-15 and 2018-19. Inadequate public investment also ended up discouraging private investment in agriculture. Between 2014-15 and 2016-17, the private sector investment to GDP ratio came down from 2.2% to 1.8% which led to an overall decline in investment–from 2.6% to 2.1%. This added to the rural crisis and agrarian distress.

Irrigation networks will remain underfunded, income support inadequate

The two drought years could have been effectively managed if the government focused on strengthening the irrigation network systems in the country. But little attention or budget was given to creating infrastructure for the agriculture sector.

The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (prime minister’s irrigation scheme) has always been underfunded, its allocation has seen no rise since its implementation in 2014-15. The budget estimate for 2019-20 for the scheme shows just a Rs 100-crore rise over last year’s budget.
In 2016-17, when the country was yet to recover from drought, the total allocation for the irrigation scheme was reduced from Rs 10,780 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 6,134 crore in 2016-17. In 2017-18, the actual expenditure on the scheme was lower even than the proposed budget, indicating both underfunding and underutilisation of funds.

The agricultural crisis pushed the government to shift its attention towards improving farmers’ income. In the NITI Aayog’s three-year action agenda, the government promised to double farmers’ income by 2022 using 2015-16 as the base year. As 2015-16 was a drought year, farm incomes were lower. This implied that any jump would be easy to manage.

The farming community is still struggling to cover the cost of cultivation leave aside make any income or profits. The BJP government did follow some short-term strategies to raise farmers’ income. One was to increase the minimum support price (MSP) to make farming more remunerative. Raising the MSP to at least 1.5 times of the comprehensive cost of cultivation was one of the recommendations of the National Commission for Farmers led by MS Swaminathan on ways to deal with farm distress. In 2018-19, the MSP for most kharif crops was raised by 23% and for rabi crops by 13%. The annual average rise in MSP for most crops between 2014-15 and 2018-19 was 5-10%. But, this rise was less than 5% in drought years.

The second strategy to address agri distress was to provide a minimum income support to farmers. In the interim budget 2019, the government announced an annual income support of Rs 60,00 to every farmer with less than 2 hectare of land under a scheme called the Pradhan Mantri Kisaan Samman Nidhi (prime minister’s farmers’ fund). This income support is to be provided annually in three installments. There are 120 million farmers deserving of this scheme, as per the government, and the annual estimated cost of supporting them would be around Rs 75,000 crore.

The government proposed to implement this scheme retrospectively from December 2018. For 2018-19, Rs 20,000 crore is proposed and this can only cater to 100 million farmers. This means a transfer of Rs 2,000 per farmer for four months or Rs 500 a month.
(Acharya is the research coordinator at the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability.)

We welcome feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. We reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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Children work at a stone crushing unit in Churaibari area of Tripura

Children constitute nearly 40% of India’s population, yet the funds allocated for their education, development, health and protection remained almost constant, the analysis noted.

The largest chunk (68%) went towards education, followed by development (26%), health (3%) and protection (2%). While allocation for education fell 1.1 percentage points, the allocation for protection increased 0.6 percentage points from last year
.
“The interim budget 2019 has shown positive trends towards the vulnerable sections of our society, including farmers, small entrepreneurs and the tax-paying middle classes,” said Puja Marwaha, chief executive officer, CRY. “Yet, for almost 40% of India’s population comprising of its children, it failed to address the expectations of the nation as children were neither a part of the budget speech nor were they visible anywhere in the 10-point vision for 2030.”

Education allocation declines, post-matric scholarships shrink
There has been a “clear but gradual decline” in the share of education from almost 79% in 2015-16 (budget estimate or BE) to 68% in 2019-20 (BE), the report noted.

Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan or integrated scheme for school education has been allocated Rs 75,000 crore for the period between April 2018 and March 2020, the report noted.

Launched in June 2018, the scheme aims to bring all programmes–from pre-school to matriculation–including Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (national middle education mission) and teachers’ training programmes–under one umbrella.

After five years of schooling, at age 10-11 years, just over half (51%) of students in India can read a grade II-level text (appropriate for seven- to eight-year-olds), IndiaSpend reported on January 15, 2019. This was lower than in 2008 when 56% grade V students could read a grade II-level text.

The allocation for the post- and pre- matriculation scholarship for marginalised groups such as scheduled castes (SCs) and other backward castes (OBCs) has “remained stagnant or in fact reduced”.

Allocation to post-matriculation scholarships across the groups has declined while pre-matriculation scholarships have increased.
The increase (in percentage terms) in pre-matriculation scholarships was the highest for SCs (156%), followed by minorities (122%) and OBCs (53%), while the fall in post-matriculation scholarship was the highest for SCs (-60%) and the least for OBCs (-17%).
 

Source: Child Rights and You, 2019
Note: All figures in Rs crore are budget estimates

Health budget declines, anganwadi services get a boost
Health saw a 0.5-percentage-point decline to 3.4% in overall allocation for children. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)–the world’s largest integrated early childhood programme to reduce child mortality–saw a 19% increase to Rs 19,428 crore. The “substantial increase” may “not be adequate” to meet the demands in anganwadis (childcare centres), the analysis said.

Anganwadis provide services such as supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition, health education and immunisation. This has been the highest allocation over the last three years, according to the report.

Note: All figures in Rs crore are budget estimates and have been rounded off

“Under Anganwadi and Asha Yojana, honorarium has been enhanced by about 50% for all categories of workers,” Piyush Goyal, interim finance minister, said in his budget speech on February 1, 2019.

India utilises the services of 1.18 million anganwadi workers (AWWs) and 1.16 million anganwadi helpers (AWHs) under ICDS, IndiaSpend reported on February 23, 2018.

As many as 11 states and four union territories have not announced any change in the additional salary paid to AWWs and AWHs since 2015, the report added.

The increase in honorarium “ought to induce much-needed positivity and improved accountability”, the CRY report said.

Allocation for child protection doubles while Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao remains stagnant
The allocation for the Integrated Child Protection Scheme doubled to Rs 1,500 crore from last year. The centrally sponsored scheme aims at building a protective environment for children through government-civil society partnership.

The allocation for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme, aimed at preventing gender-biased sex selective elimination and ensuring survival, protection and education of the girl child, has remained stagnant since the last budget at Rs 280 crore.

Over 56% funds allocated for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao from 2014-15 to 2018-19 were spent on “media-related activities” and less than 25% were disbursed to districts and states, The Quint reported on January 21, 2019.

“I can say with pride that with Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign, there has been a rise in the number of girls (female ratio) in Haryana, Rajasthan and many other states,” prime minister Narendra Modi was quoted by NDTV in this report on October 13, 2018.

“Many innocents have got rights. The meaning of life is not only to live, but live with dignity.”

The budget reduced the allocation for the National Child Labour Project–to rehabilitate working children–by 17% to Rs 100 crore from the last budget. Nearly 10.1 million children–equal to the population of Uttarakhand–are working, either as ‘main worker’ or as ‘marginal worker’, according to International Labour Organisation data.

(Paliath is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy : India Spend
 

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