Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/social-activists-dissatisfied-with-budgetary-allocations-4678851.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Social activists dissatisfied with budgetary allocations | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Social activists dissatisfied with budgetary allocations
-Press Release from Delhi Pension Parishad

Activists from seven major campaigns stated unequivocally that the Union Budget for 2016-17 far from ‘Transforming India’, as claimed by the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, is neglecting the interests of farmers, the poor and vulnerable both in nominal and real terms and subjecting every life-affirming program to severe  budget cuts.

Activists from seven major campaigns such as the Right to Food Campaign , the Right to Education Forum, Pension Parishad, Alliance for Early Childhood Development, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the People’s Action for Employment Guarantee and Bhim Yatra of Safai Karmamcharis, which came together to present their analysis of the Union Budget, 2016-17 and its implication, stated unequivocally that far from “Transforming India” as claimed by the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley and benefiting the poor, the vulnerable and the farmers, it is precisely these groups that the budget neglects the most.
   
Moderating the panel, Professor Praveen Kumar Jha, JNU, stated that the Budget, requires a critical assessment as the problem of exclusion is deeply entrenched across programmes and schemes. “Even in the case of a much-publicized National Crop Insurance Programme we find that with the National Sample Survey indicating that a whopping 95% of paddy and wheat farmers and 85% of cotton growers excluded from all insurance schemes, it is difficult to address this inordinate level of exclusion,” he cautioned.          
 
Before critiquing the budget, they condemned unequivocally the undemocratic manner in which the AADHAAR Bill has been passed in Parliament. “Under the guise of a Money Bill, the Government is seeking to force down the Aadhar Bill and thereby they are not only committing an outright Constitutional infringement on privacy but also by bypassing Rajya Sabha they are ignoring the opinions of many states that have concerns about Aadhaar,” Kavita Srivastava from the Right to Food Campaign pointed out.

Taking this forward, Nikhil Dey emphasized that “Aadhaar neither prevents leakages of ration, particularly from godown to shops, nor does it deter corruption and on the contrary gives the officials undue power to decide whose biometrics match or not and lastly has proven time and again that it is one of the most inefficient ways of ensuring delivery given the inordinate dependence on machines.” He added that in Rajasthan while in the case of ration the inefficiency rate was as high as 60 to 80 per cent, in the case of pensions it was proving even more disastrous as the fingerprinting mandatory under Aadhar does not work for the elderly.

Various campaigns pointed out that the budgetary allocations for the social sector has declined not only in nominal terms but more drastically in real terms. If any of the schemes get indexed to inflation it is evident that the decline could be as drastic as over 100% in the case of old age pension. Explaining this, Mathew Cherian of the Pension Parishad, pointed out that old age pension amount which has been fixed at Rs all these years into account. Moreover, even the meagre allocation of Rs 141.50 crores to the social security card for unorganized sector workers, which works out to Rs 14 per person if we divide it among the 10 crore elderly persons currently enlisted, leaves absolutely no resources for actual disbursement of pension.

Exposing the sheer hollowness of the budget,  Bezwada Wilson, National Convener of Safai Karamchari Andolan, stated that a five-year outlay of Rs. 4656 crores committed for rehabilitation of manual scavengers in 2013 was reduced to Rs. 10 crores in the present budget on the plea that funds are underutilized. “Who is responsible for this ” he queried. He went to say that to add insult to injury a road entry tax was being levied on the Bhim Yatra travelling across states to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar. “Till date we have paid Rs. 60 lakhs to the government” he stated     

Elaborating on these anomalies, Kavita Srivastava, representing the Right to Food Campaign, pointed out that the budget is far from being pro-farmer. In fact the actual increase in allocation is only 33% and not 128 % as being claimed by the government.  
“Despite the assurance that the National Food Security Act will be implemented across the country by April this year, the budget for the food subsidy has decreased slightly, from Rs. 1.39 lakh crores in the revised estimates for 2015-16 to Rs. 1.34 lakh crores in the 2016-17 BE and, given the emphasis on direct benefit transfers in the Economic Survey and the Finance Minister’s speech, it is not even clear if the PDS in the current form will be allowed to continue for much longer.” She added that the campaign was clear that it was not cash but grain that is the demand of the people.

Taking this forward, Dipa Sinha stated that there is no provision in this budget for universal maternity benefit entitlement of Rs. 6000 for every pregnant and lactating mother as committed to under the NFSA. Despite dedicating a chapter on Mother and Child in the Economic Survey this was not translated into budgetary commitment as the ICDS was reduced to Rs. 14,000 crores from Rs.15,300 crores in the revised estimate of 2015-16, she added.

In the case of MGNREGA, according to Nikhil Dey, the official rhetoric is highly misleading and factually incorrect as the budgets allocated  neither take into account what was sought by the states which is little over Rs 63,000 crores nor that approved by the Ministry which totaled up to Rs. 47,000 crores and “therefore it is not surprising seven out of the eight states that are drought hit have a negative balance and are not in a position to address the acute agrarian distress that farmers are facing” he added.
   
Speaking about the gross under-funding of the Health Sector, Vandana Prasad, of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, stated that while this aspect has been much written about and criticized severely by leading international agencies, including bilateral and multilateral bodies, what is “worrying is that the government’s flagship programme for strengthening the public health system, the National Health Mission (NHM), we observe that given the impact of inflation and population increase the insignificant rise – from from Rs.19,135.37 crore in 2015-16 year to Rs.19,437 for 2016-17 actually represents a 6-7% decrease, per capita, in allocation for the National Health Mission,” she asserted. In such a context “even the ambitious plan of setting up 3,000 Jan Aushadhi shops is likely to be stillborn and more so given the paltry allocation of a mere Rs. 35 crores for the purpose” she added

Analyzing the education budget, Ambarish Rai from the Right to Education campaign pointed out that “it was not only disappointing but in many ways a betrayal of all the commitments that the present government made during the election campaign of 2014 as the budgeted estimate for 2016-17 of Rs. 43,554 crore indicating an increase of just 3.2% in the allocation as compared to the previous year and this increase is of little relevance because there was a drastic cut in all the social sector budgets from 2014-15 to 2015-16.