Stunting is caused by malnutrition and both rich and poor children in India are eating badly for different reasons, said experts. “Awareness about healthy diets is low in India, even among the economically well-off segment,” said Shweta Khandelwal, additional professor and head of nutrition research at the Public Health Foundation of India.

India also has the world’s third worst (after Djibouti and South Sudan) wasting rate: 21% of its children are underweight for their height, according to the SOWC report.

Low weight and height in early childhood are a consequence of undernutrition, and their effects may be irreversible: Children who eat insufficient food lacking in the required nutrients fall sick more often and earn less as adults, effectively keeping them trapped in poverty.

India was ranked 102 on the Global Hunger Index 2019 (GHI), below Pakistan (94), Bangladesh (88) and Nepal (73). The index is a weighted average of stunting and wasting rate, and the GHI estimates that the percentage of wasted children in India increased from 16.5% to 20.8% between 2008-12 and 2014-18.

Inadequate food intake in first 1,000 days of life
Poor nutrition in early life leads to stunting and loss of IQ, which has consequences for the economy, said Mumbai-based pediatrician Rupal Dalal, adjunct professor at the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and director of health at the Shrimati Malati Dahanukar Trust.

Stunting and impaired brain development are common among those who received inadequate food in the first 1,000 days of their life, said Khandelwal. “The adverse effects are difficult to reverse,” she added.

Early childhood malnutrition increases the risk of developing non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease in adult life, the experts concurred. In addition, stunted mothers face complications during pregnancy and this affects their children as well.

Children who were stunted in the first two years of their life go on to spend less time in school and earn up to $1,440 (equivalent to Rs 1 lakh) less over their life than their peers of average height, said the SOWC report.

Poor children do not get enough protein: Study
The role of income is most apparent in the consumption of protein-rich foods such as milk products and eggs, according to the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS). While 82.7% of children from the richest households aged 2-4 years consume dairy products, half that number (41.3%) from poorest households do. Similarly, 8.2% of children from the poorest households ate eggs compared to 20% from the richest households.

Overall, few children aged 2-4 years consumed protein-rich foods, said the CNNS study: 62% consumed dairy products, 15.6% ate eggs and 31.6% ate pulses and nuts, indicating few children get the required amount of proteins regardless of household income.

Children under the age of two, breastfed or not, also do not get required nourishment irrespective of household income. Only 6.4% of children in this age group had enough intake of essential nutrients, found the CNNS.

Consumption of proteins was low among children from the poorer states in the eastern and central parts of India, the study found.

Source: Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey

“Poor diets like one having inadequate quantity and quality of carbohydrates and proteins are adversely associated with child’s growth and development and may result in stunting and/or wasting,” said Khandelwal. “Failure to provide key nutrients during the first 1,000 days, a critical period of brain development, may result in lifelong irreversible deficits in brain function.”

Growing children require nutrient-dense foods, especially proteins from eggs, milk, beans, nuts and seeds, fish and meat, and good fats, Dalal said. “Lack of protein, good fats and micronutrient-dense foods which are replaced by empty calories will cause growth failure, frequent infections, lack of concentration in school, tiredness and so on,” she said.

Rice and wheat dominate, fruits and vegetable rare
Around 55% of children aged 6-23 months who were surveyed consumed no fruit or vegetable, according to the SOWC report. But almost all children, across age groups, consumed cereals and (starch-rich) tubers such as potatoes, according to the CNNS.

Traditionally, Indian diets were rich in nutrient-rich foods such as millets and pulses. However, in a bid to ensure food security, the Indian government enacted policies that led to farmers favouring rice and wheat over fruits, vegetables and livestock products, according to Transforming Food Systems for a Rising India, a 2019 book by Cornell University researcher Prabhu Pingali.

The result is that fruits and vegetables are too expensive for many families: Only 25.4% of the poorest children aged 2-4 years ate fruits and 54% vegetables, according to the CNNS.

Children from the relatively richer households did slightly better–56.7% of the richest children ate fruits and 61% vegetables. But the low numbers indicate that nutritious food is not consumed even by children whose parents can afford it.

“Most studies say that children may be considered to have adequately diversified dietary intake if they had food items from at least four of the seven food groups,” said Khandelwal. The seven food groups, as per the WHO’s infant and young child feeding practices guidelines, are grains, roots, and tubers, legumes and nuts, dairy products, flesh foods, eggs, vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables and “other fruits and vegetables”.

Source: Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey

“Lack of (food) diversity is a serious threat gradually pushing us towards hidden hunger,” said Khandelwal. “Several micronutrients, vitamins and minerals have vanished from our diets because we have substantially cut down variety in our daily meals. Most households, due to time and resource (money, education, access, availability) paucity, are moving away from traditional local recipes, vegetables and fruits to a quicker, more accessible market version of takeaway or home-delivered meals.”

It is important to emphasise balanced healthy diets with micro- and macronutrients as a public health policy, she added.

Anaemia, obesity and stunting/wasting
As many as 38% of Indian children below four years of age, as we said, are stunted–including those belonging to the richest households. Obesity is less prevalent–2% of all children of that age are overweight or obese, according to the SOWC report. Over 40% of children aged 1-4 years are anaemic, as per the CNNS.

In addition to being stunted, children from the richest households–who can afford iron-rich vegetables, fruits and meat–also reported being anaemic. Over one-third (34.2%) of such children and just under half (46%) of the poorest children reported some form of anaemia.

This simultaneous existence of anaemia, obesity and stunting/wasting is what nutrition experts call the “triple burden of malnutrition”.

Inadequate protein and good fats in mother’s diet is also a reason for stunting, according to Dalal. A significant reason for faltering growth in the first few months of a child’s life is the lack of awareness about right breastfeeding techniques, said Dalal. Ignorance about how an infant should latch on correctly to the lower areola exists not just among mothers but also doctors, nurses and healthcare workers.

Breastfed children’s diets do not contain enough proteins and other growth micronutrients. “It is also important to include vegetables and fruits and (a) variety of whole grains like bajra, sorghum, millets and so on,” said Dalal. “They (the children) should not be exposed to junk foods like biscuits, wafers, street foods like batata-vada, bhajiya, (nutritional supplements like) Pediasure, Horlicks, high sugar/jaggery foods, sugary drinks and cakes and pastries.”

The WHO recommends that the child be introduced to solid and semi-solid foods–called complementary foods–at six months, as breast milk is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of the growing body, the CNNS report noted. However, the complementary foods fed to most children lack proteins and other micronutrients, said Dalal. “They are monotonous and watery and do not contain seeds, nuts, legumes and animal proteins,” she said.

Multi-disciplinary approach
Nutrition cannot be improved by standalone programmes and India’s attempts at tackling multiple forms of malnutrition are diluted, said Khandelwal. “Health fads, yo-yo diets, poor environmental factors, exposure to domestic violence, smoke or alcohol during the first 1,000 days also impact stunting,” said Khandelwal.

“Many issues around income, education, gender, women empowerment, poverty, social inclusion/welfare schemes, sanitation etc are related and known to have an impact on nutritional status of the masses,” she added. “All these have to be addressed under a smooth harmonised multi-sectoral strategy guided by effective leadership to have a sustained impact.”

Khandelwal emphasised the need for multidisciplinary strategies. “Right now, most programmes and policies are a bunch of single-focus top-down initiatives with no conversations between the multiple sectors who should be talking and assuming collective responsibility to advance science and translate those into public health policy/action,” she said.

A plan for improving diagnostic and tertiary care, providing trained staff and enhancing the capacity to deal with issues related to malnutrition are necessary, Khandelwal pointed out. “Let us not associate nutrition with merely how much and what to eat but all other related behaviours to have a meaningful impact on public health and nutrition,” she added

This story was first published here on Healthcheck.

(Iqbal is an intern with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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The index evaluates countries on eight indicators to determine the wellbeing of children and teenagers (0-19 years): mortality among children under five years of age, malnutrition that stunts growth, lack of education, child labour, early marriage, adolescent births, displacement by conflict and child homicide. A final score out of 1,000 is derived, and countries are ranked accordingly.

Between 2000 and 2019, India’s score rose from 632 to 769. India also improved its rank from 116 of 172 countries in 2018 to, as we said, 113 of 176 countries this year.

In the year 2000, an estimated 970 million children around the world were deprived of their childhood because of these causes. By 2019, that number fell 29% to 690 million.

An increase in public investments, and intervention through programmes targeted at marginalised children to ensure universal healthcare and education are needed to help improve the wellbeing of children, the report suggests.

A minimum financial security for all children through child-sensitive social protection needs to be on governments’ agenda, the report says, adding that adopting a national action plan to reduce and eliminate child poverty, together with dedicated budgets and monitoring systems that track improvements in poverty-related deprivations, will help achieve better childhood outcomes.

Infectious diseases cause most deaths of Indian children under five
India has reduced its child mortality rate by 55% in the last two decades, from 88 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2017, according to data from this 2018 report. Yet, it lags the Millennium Development Goal of 25 or fewer deaths per 1,000 live births.

These deaths are mostly attributed to preventable infectious diseases, followed by injuries, meningitis, measles and malaria.

Among neighbouring countries, India’s performance on under-five mortality was better only than that of Pakistan (74.9). Sri Lanka (8.8), China (9.3), Bhutan (30.8), Nepal (33.7) and Bangladesh (32.4) have all outperformed India.

38.4% Indian children are stunted
Between 2000 and 2019, the prevalence of stunting–low height for age–among children below age five fell 25% globally–from 198 million children to 149 million. More than 50% of this reduction was in China and India alone, the reports says.

As of 2018, 38.4% Indian children under five were stunted, the second worst performance compared to its neighbours after Pakistan (40.8%). China (6%) had the lowest rate in the region, followed by Nepal (13.8%), Sri Lanka (17.3%), Bangladesh (17.4%) and Bhutan (19.1%), the report says.

There are wide disparities between states in India–while 48.3% children are stunted in Bihar, 45.3% in Jharkhand and 37.6% in Chhattisgarh, Kerala has the least at 19%, followed by Tamil Nadu (27.1%), according to data from the National Family Health Survey, 2015-16.

1 in 5 Indian children is out of school
Despite India’s advances at giving free universal education to its children, 20.2% of them (aged 8-16) were still out of school as of 2018, according to data cited in the report. Compared to its neighbors, India performed better only than Pakistan (40.8%), while Sri Lanka (6.4%), Nepal (13.8%), Bangladesh (17.4%), Bhutan (19.1%) and China (7.6%) did better.

As of 2018, 152 million children were still engaged in child labour around the world, the report says, adding that a hypothetical country made up only of these child labourers would rank as the world’s ninth largest by population.

India has the most child labourers globally, as IndiaSpend reported in June 2017, depriving them of education and exposing them to unsafe and toxic environment–leading to irrecoverable health damage.

Between 2000 and 2018, child marriage in India fell 51%
India halved its number of child marriages in 18 years to 2018, while marriage rates for the poorest girls fell at least as much as for everyone else, data from the report show. The decline has been fastest among girls younger than 15.

In 1978, India raised the minimum age of marriage from 15 to 18 for girls and from 18 to 21 for boys. In the last two decades, India has worked to curb child marriage through legislation such as the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, and schemes such as the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (called ‘SABLA’), Kishori Shakti Yojana and Nutrition Programme for Adolescent Girls.

The decline is attributed to economic growth, rising rates of girls’ education and proactive investments by government, the report says. Community-based interventions such as empowerment counseling, sexual and reproductive health information, vocational training and life-skills development for girls have also been important factors. Schemes such as conditional cash transfers to educate the girl child have also helped reduce child marriage, the report notes.

Adolescent births in India fell 63% in 20 years
India has managed to reduce adolescent births by 63% since 2000, which has resulted in 2 million fewer young mothers. Progress in India alone accounts for nearly three-quarters of the global reduction in adolescent births–from 16 million to 13 million.

Child-bearing at a young age not only has fatal consequences for the baby but also for the mother, and makes for the leading cause of death for girls between 14 and 19 years of age.

Much of India’s progress has been the result of its social welfare programmes that have enabled more girls to stay in school, and increased access to sexual and reproductive health services.

As of 2018, adolescent birth rate–that is, births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 years–in India was 24.5, higher than that in China (6.5), Sri Lanka (14.8) and Bhutan (22.1), and better than that in Pakistan (37.7), Nepal (62.1) and Bangladesh (84.4).

(Sana Ali is a reporter with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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The Modi Regime’s third budget has seen a sharp cut in funding related to schemes addressing needs of India’s crucial sector, it’s children. Children have received 3.32 per cent resources of the total Union budget in 2017-18. This remains same as the allocation in the Union Budget last year.

In 2017-18, the share of child health stands to be a mere 0.12 per cent of the total Union Budget. Although there has been an inconsistent trend in financing the health sector for children, with the figures going up and down in the previous years, the needs of child health have remained neglected, and this is visible even in the 2017-18 budget.

The implementation of the promises of the National Policy for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) 2013 through the ICDS and other structures necessitates a re-look at the allocations. This includes upgradation of crèche schemes to serve as vehicles to help young children develop holistically. The scheme related to crèches received increased allocation of Rs. 200 Crores in 2017-18 as it was Rs. 150 Crores in 2016-17 Budget, a 33.3 per cent increase. An interesting addition was the allocation of Rs. 0.63 crores in 2017-18 for crèche facilities for the para-military forces – CISF, ITBP and SSB, which had no mention in the last year’s budget.
 
Since the survival and health of infants is closely linked to that of the mother’s heath, appropriate allocation and spending under IGMSY and JSY as per programme commitments must be ensured.IGMSY received a substantial increase of575 per cent this year, (from Rs. 400 Crores in 2016-17 to Rs. 2700 in 2017-18) which reflects on the government’s commitment towards mother and child care.

Mr. Jaitley emphasized that his budget this year was for the Dalits, Tribals, Minorities and Women. How does he justify the cut in budgets for schemes for education for SC boys?
 
A detailed analysis of the budgetary allocations for children has been undertaken by Haq, Centre for Child Rights. The Report may be read here.

Extracts:

Key Points for Children

• The share of children in the Union Budget 2017-18 has remained the same as 2016-17. 
• Education saw an increase of six per cent in absolute terms. Despite this increase to Rs. 50300.53 Crores in 2017-18, it has failed to reach the amount allocated for the schemes/programmes in 2014-15 of Rs. 58544.42 Crores prior to devolution. Moreover it is a concern that its share has fallen from 2.40 per cent to 2.34 per cent within the Union Budget. 
• Child Development has received a 13.32 per cent increase in allocation in 2017-18. As a share of the Union Budget it has gone up from 0.77 per cent to 0.80 per cent. 
• Child protection received more attention witha 55per cent increase from last year (2016-17). Despite this, the share in the Union Budget has increased from a meager 0.03 per cent to 0.05per cent. 
• ICPS, the flagship programme, received Rs. 648 Crores in 2017-18, an increase of 63 per cent from last year’s Rs. 397 Crores (2016-17) and 61 per cent from 2015-16. 
• One of the flagship schemes to fulfill the nutritional needs of young children – ICDS, remains under resourced with Rs. 15245.19 Crores allocation. 
• India’s overall public health expenditure is just 1.2 per cent of its GDP as against the WHO standard of at least three per cent of GDP. Child health continues to have the same allocation as last year,a meagre 0.12 per cent share in the Union Budget 2017-18. Although in absolute terms there is an increase in 13.46 per cent. 
• Interestingly, many of the schemes/ programmes have shown substantial increase inallocations compared to Union Budget 2016-17:
• In Statement 12, the overall allocation for children under the Department of Health and Family Welfare has increased by 13.46 per cent. 
• The overall allocations for children related schemes/ programmes under the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has shown a decrease of 37.18 per cent – from Rs. 1017.05 Crores to Rs. 638.93 Crores.

 
Child Health
In 2017-18, the share of child health stands to be a mere 0.12 per cent of the total Union Budget. Although there has been an inconsistent trend in financing the health sector for children, with the figures going up and down in the previous years, the needs of child health have remained neglected, and this is visible even in the 2017-18 budget.

The Finance Minister in his speech mentioned that an “action plan has been prepared to reduce IMR from 39 in 2014 to 28 by 2019 and MMR from 167 in 2011-13 to 100 by 2018-2020. 1.5 lakh Health Sub Centres will be transformed into Health and Wellness Centres.”

Further, as announced by the Prime Minister, under the Maternity Benefit Scheme, Rs. 6,000 each would be transferred directly to the bank accounts of pregnant women who undergo institutional delivery and vaccinate their children. This is going to directly impact the health of children.

In the Union Budget 2017-18, Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital received 16.7 per cent increased allocation against the previous year.

It is critical to note here that Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital has been featuring in media reports for all the wrong reasons, thoughthehospital has been consistently receiving funds from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Despite this, the situation of children in this hospital remains outrageous. This indicates poor utilisation of funds as well as lack of adequate funds.

While the achievements of the National Health Mission in reaching affordable healthcare services must be applauded, the need of universal healthcare, both in terms of access and quality remains a cause of concern. In the Union Budget 2017-18, NRHM-RCH Flexi Pool observed a minor increase of 16 per cent from Rs. 2114.99 Crores in 2016-17 to Rs. 2454.42 Crores in 2017-18.
 
A Glimpse of Sectoral Allocations in BfC 2017-18…
Following the previous trends, despite almost 55 per cent increase in the child protection sector, it remains heavily under resourced this year too. This must be seen in the context of the major amendments in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, the current allocations are far away from meeting the requirements. Similarly, child health and child development remain to be nominally resourced and their share in both Union budget and within BfC, do not indicate towards major changes in the current scenario.

Child Development
The Development sector has been allocated 0.80 per cent of the total Union Budget this year. This is onlyThis is only 13.32 per cent increase against previous year’s allocation as it was only 0.77 per cent in the 2016-17 Budget.
According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s Rapid Survey on Children, 29.4 per cent children in the age group of 0-59 months have been found to be underweight[1]. Only 49.3 per cent Anganwadicentres had vaccination facility available and only 37.9 per cent children in the age group of 3-6 years are able to receive pre-school education through Anganwadicentres[2].

The 2013-14 survey mentions that 49.2 per cent of children aged 6 to 35 months availed supplementary food under the Anganwadi services. The figure was higher in rural areas (53.8 per cent) compared to urban areas (36.7 per cent). Only 44.2 per cent of the children aged 36-71 months and 40.7 per cent pregnant women availed supplementary food.[3]These figures indicate towards rising nutritional needs of children and also raise serious questions about poor coverage of Anganwadicentres in the country.

This year too, ICDS has not seen much increase and received only Rs. 15245.19 Crores, which is a mere 8.89 per cent of the total union Budget.

ICDS in its universalisationand in third phase of expansion faces many challenges such as inadequate availability of space for AnganwadiCentres (AWCs), vacant posts, low focus on growth monitoring, low focus on early childhood etc.

The Finance Minister announced that Mahila Shakti Kendras would be set up with an allocation of Rs. 500 crores in 14 lakh ICDSAnganwadiCentres. This will provide one stop convergent support services for empowering rural women with opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition.

However what needs to be figured out here is that how the resources meant for children and adolescents as part of ICDS is going to be utilized towards women’s empowerment. Are resources going to be diverted / shared and children lose out in this process?

The National Nutrition Mission has been allocated Rs. 1100 Crores, an increase of 206 per cent from last year’s allocation of Rs. 360 Crores.

The implementation of the promises of the National Policy for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) 2013 through the ICDS and other structures necessitates a re-look at the allocations. This includes upgradation of crèche schemes to serve as vehicles to help young children develop holistically. The scheme related to crèches received increased allocation of Rs. 200 Crores in 2017-18 as it was Rs. 150 Crores in 2016-17 Budget, a 33.3 per cent increase. An interesting addition was the allocation of Rs. 0.63 crores in 2017-18 for crèche facilities for the para-military forces – CISF, ITBP and SSB, which had no mention in the last year’s budget.
 
Since the survival and health of infants is closely linked to that of the mother’s heath, appropriate allocation and spending under IGMSY and JSY as per programme commitments must be ensured.IGMSY received a substantial increase of575 per cent this year, (from Rs. 400 Crores in 2016-17 to Rs. 2700 in 2017-18) which reflects on the government’s commitment towards mother and child care.

 
Child Education
The total allocation for education (elementary and secondary) is Rs. 50300.53 Crores,which has been an increase of almost six per cent from the previous year.Even though education sector receives the highest share in the Union budget (2.34 percent) as well as within BfC (70.54 percent), it remains an under resourced area given the national and international commitments and the goal of spending six percent of the GDP on child education. The share of education within the Union Budget as well as the BfC has gone down from the previous year.

SarvaShikshaAbhiyaan (SSA)
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is the flagship programme for universal elementary education for children in the age group of 6-14 years, run by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

RashtriyaMadhyamikShikshaAbhiyaan(RMSA)
RMSA, a centrally sponsored scheme launched in 2009, aimed at providing universal access to quality secondary education by 2017, removing gender, socio-economic and disability barriers.
Total allocation for RMSA for 2017-2018 is Rs. 3830Crores. The share of allocation has increased by 3.5 percent (from Rs. 3700 Croresto Rs. 3830Crores).
 
Mid-day Meal (MDM)
The Mid-day meal scheme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development entitles every child within the age group of 6 to 14 years, studying in classes I to VIII, to be provided meal free of charge in schools.
Mid-day Meal Scheme observed increase of 3.09percent in its allocation (from Rs. 9700 Croresin 2016-2017 to Rs. 10000 Crores in 2017-2018).
 
Child Protection
As we experienced in previous budgets, child protection sector continues to be on the periphery with the lowest share in the total Union Budget as well as BfC. This year, child protection received only 0.05 per cent of total allocations in the Union Budget and 1.49 per cent within BfC. Like other sectors, this sector too remains under resourced despite an allocation of Rs. 1062.43 Crores – an increase of 54.80 per cent.

This when the NCRB reports an increase of 5.3 per cent in crimes against children between 2014 and 2015,a total of 94,172 cases were registered in the country during 2015 as compared to 89,423 cases during 2014.[4]
The only scheme related to child labour in Statement 12, theNational Child Labour Projectobserved an increase of 14.3 per cent in allocation in the 2017-18 Union Budget (Rs. 140 Crores to Rs. 160 Crores).It must be noted that India is home to 12.6 million child labour[5] in the age group of 5-14 years. It is also commendable that after India winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the issue has got more attention, but the current allocations indicate towards grave insufficiency in order to eradicate this evil.

One of the biggest umbrella schemes to address the needs of child protection, Integrated Child Protection Scheme has seen a considerable increase by 63 per cent from the previous year’s budget – from Rs. 397 Crores in 2016-2017 to Rs. 648 Crores in 2017-18.

However the focus needs to be on the implementation of the scheme on the ground and monitoring of the outcomes.
The BetiBachaoBetiPadhao (BBBP) scheme, launched in January 2015, saw a 100 per cent increase in allocation, from Rs. 100 Crores in 2016-17 to Rs. 200 Crores in 2017-18.
 
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) emphasizes on the principle of universality and inviolability of child rights and focuses on protection of all children in the 0 to 18 years age group. NCPCR has been allocated a total sum of Rs. 19 Crores in the Union Budget 2017-18, the same as in previous year’s budget.
 
The total allocation for SSA is Rs. 23500.00 Crores in 2017-18, showing an increase by 4.44percent (Rs. 22500 Crores in 2016-17). However it still does not match the allocation of Rs. 27758.00 in 2014-15, prior to the devolution.

According to Accountability Initiative, in the FY 2016-17 the MHRD estimated a resource demand of Rs. 55,000 Crores, however the budget for the year allocated was Rs. 22,500 Crores.The expenditure on SSA as a share of total approved budgets has been decreasing. In FY 2015-16, 70 per cent of the approved budget was spent, down from 75 per cent in FY 2014-15. Due to lack of data on funds released by states for FY 2015-16, it is unclear whether the low expenditures are due to a delay in fund release or because of the low absorption capacity of the states.[6]

As the primary vehicle for implementing the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), with such gaps in the total allocation and the total approved budget, one could only see the non-implementation of this scheme in full spirit.

The ASER survey 2016[7]had some interesting observations on the education scenario in the country. At the all India level, the enrollment increased for all age groups between 2014 and 2016 in the government schools while no change was noticed in the enrollment in private schools during this period. The learning levels, both reading and arithmetic, had gone up in government schools. While there was improvement in school facilities in terms of accessibility to drinking water and toilet facilities, as well as increase in "small schools" in the government primary school sector, children's attendance did not show major change from 2014.

Conclusion

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