The latest Budget speech perpetuates a chronic blindness to basic social needs. Children are not mentioned at all and nor are (say) nutrition, social security or maternity entitlements.
| Keyword | Number of citations | |
| 2014 | 2016 | |
| Investment | 34 | 23 |
| Growth | 31 | 20 |
| NREGA/employment guarantee | 2 | 1 |
| Nutrition | 2 | 0 |
| Social security | 1 | 0 |
| Children | 0 | 0 |
| Integrated Child Development Services | 0 | 0 |
| Midday meals/school meals | 0 | 0 |
| Maternity/maternity entitlements | 0 | 0 |
| National food security act | 0 | 0 |
| Pensions (other than organized sector) | 0 | 0 |
| National Health Mission | 0 | 1a |
a “Funds will be made available through PPP mode under the National Health Mission, to provide dialysis services in all district hospitals.”
The 2016-17 budget also continues the long-standing trend of ignoring the social sector at the expense of defence:
