"The increased outlays (in the budget) to the social sector do not necessarily benefit children"
By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India is to increase spending on women and children by 25 percent, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his budget speech on Wednesday, with funds going into areas such as empowerment, maternity care and child health.
Jaitley said rural communities - such as women, farmers, lower caste and tribal groups - needed more support to fight poverty, and raised allocations on a slew of social welfare programs, as well as halving basic personal income tax rates.
In the 2017-18 budget total funds allocated for the welfare of women and children across all the ministries will rise to 1,846 billion rupees ($27.4 billion) from 1,565 billion rupees the previous year, said Jaitley.
This includes increases in welfare programs to reduce child malnutrition, free school meals for the poor and teacher training.
It also includes funds for pregnant women and for the establishment of 1.4 million village centres to empower women.
"This will provide one stop convergent support services for empowering rural women with opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition," said Jaitley, talking of the centres called "Mahila Shakti Kendra".
Jaitley said he also planned to double spending on a microfinance scheme and priority would be given to marginalised groups such as women, tribals, lower castes and minorities.
CHILDREN MISSED OUT
Child rights groups welcomed the rise in funding, but said the allocations were too marginal to meet the needs of India's children -- almost 40 percent of India's 1.3 billion population.
Of the 1,846 billion rupees allocated, 38 percent is for children, they said, adding that this is only a 8.5 percent increase from the previous year and that tiny hikes in welfare programmes would not make a significant difference.
For example, Save the Children said an increase of only 500 million rupees for Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) - a programme which is responsible for helping children in difficult circumstances - was a major concern.
"This is a pittance since there are more than 600 districts in the country, thus, in real terms this will mean 10 million rupees have been allocated per district," said Save the Children India in a statement.
"However, since crimes are not distributed equally across these 618 districts, this amount is negligible to stem the increasing number of crimes against children."
There was also no mention of funds to implement newly enacted laws on child labour and juvenile justice, said the charity.
Nobel Laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, who has long been calling for increased funds for children, also said he was disappointed.
"I have always emphasized the criticality of safeguarding the child's environment to ensure his or her development. The outcome indicators of children's progress show huge deficiencies at present," said Satyarthi.
"The increased outlays (in the budget) to the social sector do not necessarily benefit children," he said.
($1 = 67.4346 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nita Bhalla @nitabhalla, Editing by Astrid Zweynert. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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