The budgetary allocations for welfare of children has been declining, as can be seen from the Child Budget Statement 2022-23 which shows that the share of children’s budget as a proportion of the total budget has come down from 4.64% in 2014-15 to 2.35% in 2022-23.
Read the Child Budget Statement 2022-23 here:
@vijayta_cbga, @protiva, @simonti-chakraborty - what are your thoughts on this year’s Child Budget?
In absolute terms, the total outlay for children has increased by 8 per cent in the Budget Estimates of 2022-23 as compared to the 2021-22 (BE). However, as a percentage of the total Union Budget, the reported allocations for children have shown a decline, from 2.46 per cent in 2021-22 (BE) to 2.35 per cent in 2022-23 (BE).
Among the different ministries/departments that have reported into the Child Budget Statement of this year, interventions from the Ministry of Women and Child Development have recorded a decline of 7.6 per cent. A similar trend can be observed in the child-focused outlays from the Department of Health and Family Welfare (decrease of 6 per cent). On the other hand, allocations reported from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment have shown a jump of almost 95 per cent, with a substantial rise in allocations for the Post-Matric Scheme in 2022-23 (BE) from the previous year’s Budget Estimates. Allocations for the Department of School Education and Literacy have also increased by 11.6 per cent.
Overall, the child budget this time, has been a mixed bag with allocations increasing in some sectors and decreasing in others. But considering the immense adverse impact of the pandemic on various facets of the lives of children, there should have been a significantly higher increase in all child specific spending.
Thanks, Vijayta, for a sharing a comprehensive overview of the trends in child budgeting!
Thanks @divya_chirayath @vijayta_cbga.
While the CBS helps us to get a consolidated picture on Union government’s interventions towards children, following are some of the issues which need attention.
Another kind of reporting challenges we observe in schemes where the purpose is known, but difficult to find rationale for the reporting. Such an example is post matric scholarship scheme, which is given to students from post matriculation (XI onwards) till post-graduation.
The CBS 2022-23 shows the entire amount of post-matric scholarship for minorities (Rs. 515 crore in 2022-23) is getting reported under child budget. Similarly, it is difficult to explain the basis of reporting 48% of total post matric scholarship-SC budget in 2022-23 or 20% of 2021-22(RE) for children.
2. The CBS does not provide comprehensive information on public provbisioning for children as now only 19 departments/ministries are reporting under CBS. Many other departments spend on child welfare , but do not report under CBS. some of the examples include Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Skill Development&Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Raiways.
Thanks, @protiva, for bringing attention to the issues of non-uniform reporting in the CBS.
@simonti-chakraborty has also discussed the issue of lack of standardisation of reporting in CBS, even across states, in this article: