February 2005

The social sector, comprising poverty alleviation, labour & employment, education, health, population & family welfare, has been neglected for far too long. Successive governments have paid lip service to the social sector by making miserly allocations that kept up the sham of serving the poor while no holistic, sustainable programme actually reached the needy.

This listless direction appears to change with the budget proposals unveiled today. For one, the government has announced a significant jump in allocations for health and family welfare — from Rs.8,420 crore in 2004-05 to Rs.10,280 crore for 2005-06, an increase of 22%. Previous years allocations for the sector have moved up slower — from Rs.5,140 crores in 2001-02 to Rs.5,671 crores in 2002-03 to Rs.6,630 crores in 2003-04.

There are other positive signals — the allocation for the Integrated Child Development Scheme [ICDS] has taken what the Ministry of Finance called a "quantum jump" from Rs.1,623 crore in 2004-05 to Rs.3,142 in the budget proposals for 2005-06. The Finance Minister has ear marked Rs.100 crores for "Rural Knowledge Centres" as part of "Mission 2007" to set up a Knowledge Centre in every village by the 60th anniversary of Independence Day. And the Mid-Day Meal Scheme has increased allocations as well, from Rs.1,675 crore in 2004-05 to Rs.3,010 crore in the new proposals.

Each of these measures carries the capacity to bring about change where it is required most, and has a direct bearing on health and population issues. The allocations in themselves may not be enough but they set a tone and direction that future governments can hardly ignore.

To that end, the finance minister deserves to be complimented. The budget is not an annual mela for business or industry. It is essentially an opportunity when the government takes stock and makes course corrections so that it reaches out to the most needy even as it seeks to power the economy.

It is therefore unfortunate that in the endless "analysis" on the budget, the social sector is rarely, if ever, spoken about. This year, too, we find that budget "talk" in the immediate aftermath is limited to a narrow, industry or corporate-specific outlook which misses the long awaited increase in allocations.

After all, how can India become an economic giant and how can all the goods and services be bought by its people if the vast majority do not have access to an adequate standard of living and basic health and medical care?

In allocations to the health sector, India has ranked rather poorly with a public allocation of 0.9% of GDP for 2001, amongst the lowest in the world, according to the United Nations Human Development Report 2004. The report names only four countries with a lower public allocation for health: Indonesia, Myanmar, Sudan and Nigeria. It must be understood that India can never become the super power it seeks to be while sitting so low down on the socio economic issues.

While increased allocations are the key first step, this is not enough. We must now look forward to better governance so that every Rupee reaches the intended beneficiaries if we are to bring about change in society.

POPULATION FIRST Launches Advocacy Film
Seeks support of TV channels to bring population issues to the center of public discourse

POPULATION FIRST formally released the film "Queue" [Aap Qatar Mei Hain] on Tuesday, November 23. The 90 second film is part of our National Advocacy Campaign for Population Stabilisation [NACPS], and seeks to bring back to public attention and focus the subject of health and population. It'll play on various television stations in march,2005.

A still from the film 'Queue'[Aap Qatar Mei Hain] launched by POPULATION FIRST in Mumbai on November 23, 2004

Riding on the popular and ubiquitous voice message Aap Qatar Mei Hain [You Are In Queue], the film draws attention to the issue of population and the challenges associated with it.

Dramatically depicted, the film gives us a long and heart rending look at the various queues that have formed an everyday part of our lives and which, in a sense, reflect the quality of life of a majority of our people.

The film presents a close and creative look at the way numbers impinge on the lives of the people of India and has an emotive appeal as it touches on day-to-day experiences. The treatment is extremely gripping and unique, thereby ensuring continuous interest. Within the film, POPULATION FIRST has built in a response mechanism wherein interested and concerned citizens can call or SMS a particular number and express their desire to better understand the issue and to work on health and population issues in the country.

The film is sponsored by the Tatas as part of the birth centenary celebrations of JRD Tata, a pioneer in population planning.

"Development as Freeedom"

Indian Finance Minister Mr.P Chidambaram ended his budget speech with a quote from Dr.Amartya Sen's book, "Development as Freedom."

"Growth of GNP or of individual incomes can, of course, be very important as means to expanding the freedoms enjoyed by the members of the society. But freedoms depend also on other determinants, such as social and economic arrangements (for example, facilities for education and health care) as well as political and civil rights."

"The UPA Government accepts this ethical dimension to the discussion of economic issues, and in this Budget I have attempted to reflect that dimension," Mr.Chidambaram told Parliament. [Full speech at http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2005-06/bs/speecha.htm]

Excerpts from his speech [the article numbers are as they appear in the full speech text]

Growth, stability and equity are mutually reinforcing objectives. The NCMP leans towards decisive intervention by the State in favour of the poor. Given the resilience of the Indian economy, it is possible to mobilize the resources and launch a direct assault on poverty and unemployment. That is the only way to bring immediate relief to the aam admi.

Empowering the People:

India is not a poor country, yet a significant proportion of our people are poor. Poverty is not only income poverty. Other indicators of poverty are illiteracy, disease, infant mortality, malnutrition, absence of skills and unemployment. The whole purpose of democratic government is to eliminate poverty and give to every citizen the opportunity to be educated, to learn a skill and to be gainfully employed. The Government holds that it is its sacred duty to empower the poor and eliminate the scourge of poverty.

National Rural Health Mission:

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) will be launched in the next fiscal. Its focus will be strengthening primary health care through grass root level public health interventions based on community ownership. The total allocation for the Department of Health and the Department of Family Welfare will increase from Rs.8,420 crore in the current year to Rs.10,280 crore in the next year. The increase will finance the NRHM and its components like training of health volunteers, providing more medicines and strengthening the primary and community health centre system.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana:

The Antyodaya Anna Yojana now covers 2 crore Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. The number will be increased to 2.5 crore families in 2005-06.

ICDS:

The universalization of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme is overdue. It is my intention to ensure that, in every settlement, there is a functional anganwadi that provides full coverage for all children. As on date there are 6,49,000 anganwadi centres. I propose to expand the ICDS scheme and create 1,88,168 additional centres that are required as per the existing population norms. Forty seven per cent of children in the age group 0-3 are reportedly underweight. Supplementary nutrition is an integral part of the ICDS scheme. I propose to double the supplementary nutrition norms and share one-half of the States' costs for this purpose. I also propose to increase the allocation for ICDS from Rs.1,623 crore in BE 2004-05 to Rs.3,142 crore in BE 2005-06.

Mid-day Meal Scheme:

The Mid-day Meal Scheme for children has made a promising start throughout the country. 11 crore children are covered today. The Central Government is now providing the cost of food grains as well as the conversion cost at the rate of Re.1 per child. The allocation in BE 2004-05 was Rs.1,675 crore. I propose to increase the allocation for the next year to Rs.3,010 crore.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme is the cornerstone of the Government's intervention in basic education for all children. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was allocated Rs.3,057 crore in the Budget Estimates for 2004-05. During the course of the year, I enhanced the allocation to Rs.4,754 crore. A non-lapsable fund called "Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh" has been created for funding this programme. I propose to increase the allocation to Rs.7,156 crore in 2005-06.

III. BHARAT NIRMAN

In his address to Parliament, the President outlined an overarching vision to build India, and called it 'Bharat Nirman'. Bharat Nirman has been conceived as a business plan, to be implemented over a period of four years, for building infrastructure, especially in rural India. It will have six components, namely, irrigation, roads, water supply, housing, rural electrification and rural telecom connectivity. In each of these areas, we must dare to be bold and set for ourselves high targets to be achieved by the year 2009. Full speech by the president of india to parliament on 25,Feb,2005 Click Here