SHILLONG: A study prepared by child rights activists to analyze the Meghalaya Budget with regards to the allocation of funds for children presented a gloomy picture when it came to programmes for children.
North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC), Guwahati and HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, New Delhi, with the support of Asian Confluence, Shillong released the report of the study ‘Budget for Children in Meghalaya 2015-16’ at the Asian Confluence here on Monday.
While discussing the ‘Interface on budget for children in Meghalaya’, there were concerns arising with regard to the needs of children and their welfare as there was negligible allocation I this regard in the Government’s budget.
Releasing the report ‘Budget for Children in Meghalaya 2015-16’, Social Welfare Minister Deborah Marak acknowledged that the present fund allocation is not adequate. But given the financial crunch prioritization of allocations is very delicate. The Minister, however, assured that she will propose to make a child friendly budget and added that the matter will be discussed with the Government.
The panelists for the occasion were Toki Blah, Director, ICARE, and Sumarbin Umdor, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, NEHU.
Blah expressed shock over the budget allocation by stating that only a meager amount is allocated to children in the Meghalaya budget.
Umdor said that with the 14th Finance Commission, there is a change in the financial allocation for the state. He said that to tide over the current financial crunch, the state should generate its own revenue.
“The state should mobilize its own resources. There are over 13 sick Public Sector Units (PSUs) in the state. The share that should have gone to children’s welfare is being diverted to sustain the sick units. Moreover, the projects are not implemented timely,” Umdor observed.
He also said that with the current financial position, the State should now be wise enough to prioritize its projects, categorizing core projects and the non-core ones.
“There is leakage of revenue which needs to be plugged by utilizing the services of the IT department and we need to make a stand against corruption,” he added. (Contd on P-10)
Introducing the study, Dr Melvil Pereira, Director, NESRC, said that the State government should make an effort to disaggregate allocations and spending for children in the Northeast.
The study on budget for children began by HAQ in 2000 and drawing upon HAQ’s methodology, the Ministry of Women and Child Development started children’s budgeting. Since then, the Ministry of Finance has a special statement on schemes for the welfare of children in the budget.
K. K. Sen, Senior Fellow, NESRC, pointed out “At present only Rs 4.53 from every 100 rupees of the state government is allocated for 47% of the population- the children of Meghalaya”. He noted with concern that both the state general budget and the budget for children had seen a reduction in the 2015-16 budget when compared to last year’s budget. While the state has fallen by 6.5%, the children’s share has been reduced by 50 %.
HAQ in its findings pointed out that education has received the maximum share of the budget while the allocation for health is small and decreasing at the same time and allocation for protection sector remained low.
Sen further indicated that proper monitoring is needed to ensure transparency in the implementation of schemes in order to take the cause of women and child rights forward.
Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, Co-Director of HAQ informed that HAQ started the budget analysis for children in 2001 and it is for the first time that it is being attempted in Meghalaya.
She maintained that none of the states in India has implemented the budget prioritization for children, “The responsibility is now upon the states to start rethinking the budget allocation for children’s welfare.”
Referring to Statement 22 in Expenditure Budget, which mentions about the budget for children by Central Government, she emphasized that the states should also do the same.
“Although, fiscal federalism is very important, it must not lead to low prioritization of allocations and spending on children. In fact it must lead to more attention to the vulnerable groups and social sector budgets”.
Ved Prakash Gautam, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF (Guwahati) pointed out that delayed sanctions of the budget hampers the utilization of funds allocated which needs to be corrected.
