The other flagship schemes of the UPA government have met with the same fate. Take Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan (SSA), the aim of which is to put every child in school. Although 98 per cent of our habitations are covered by primary schools, the quality of elementary education is abysmal and dropouts remain high. Between 2003-04 and 2008- 09, the allocation for this programme increased by 571 per cent. Not anymore. The budgeted outlay of Rs 13,100 crore for SSA in 2009-10 remains the same as what had been budgeted for and spent in the current year. Even in the moderately successful Mid-day Meals Scheme, which now covers all school children in classed I to VIII, the outlay remains exactly the same in both the years, Rs 8000 crore. Also, in both SSA and MDM, the extent of expenditure being funded  from the Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh (the education cess that is contributed by all, even the poorest) has been going up every year, raising the burden of accountability on the government.

WHO Norms help ICDS

The only scheme that has bucked the trend of neglect is the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). It has actually has seen a small rise in its outlay in 2009-10, by 6.3 per cent to Rs 6705 crore. In an effort to universalize ICDS, as part of the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme, the scheme was expanded twice in the last five years to uncovered habitations across the country. Yet, in the year preceding the Third National Family Health Survey, the results of which were released in 2007, only 28 per cent of children were reported to have received any services from an  Anganwadi centre. According to the government’s own estimates, in the 2005-06 annual report for the Ministry of Women and Child, only 6.49 lakh Anganwadis   were operational, leaving a shortfall of 10.7 lakh Anganwadis and thousands of children uncovered. The extra money would hopefully go some way in meeting this deficit. Another encouraging fact about ICDS in this budget: Under attack for rising malnutrition levels among children, the government will adopt the new WHO child growth standards from the next fiscal year for monitoring growth of children under this scheme.

No Protection for Children

As for child protection, the government has struck at its core by cutting the budget for the Integrated Child Protection Scheme, down from Rs 180 crore in 2008-09 to only Rs 54 crore (plus Rs 6 crore to be spent in North-Eastern States). It even  managed to spend only Rs 54 crore in 2008-09, as per the revised budget. The ICPS, which was to be implemented during the Eleventh Five year Plan period and unloaded with much fanfare in 2007, is practically stillborn and is awaiting approval from the full Planning Commission. If implemented rightly, the ICPS will go a long way in establishing a countrywide integrated juvenile justice system, especially the much-needed institutions such as a Juvenile Justice Board and a Child Welfare Committee in each one of the 611 districts of the country. HAQ has calculated that only one day’s expenditure on just the members alone, if all CWCs and JJBs are to be in place, amounts to Rs. 2,13,800 per day, not including other administrative costs. But meeting civil and political rights of children is obviously a low priority area for the government. Still, the 2009-10 budget does not come as a shock to child activists in the country. Especially because it is an interim budget, which is the constitutional provision that allows the outgoing government to present the revenue and expenditure accounts to enable the ministries to continue funding existing programmes till the incumbent government manages to present the full budget.

With elections scheduled in April-May, the full budget for 2009-10 will now be presented in June. While the government does need Parliament's approval for such a presentation, it does not have the mandate to tweak major policies or change tax  rates. Any major reform or rethinking in terms of India’s children was therefore not expected.

Bad Fiscal Management Hits Children

The Budget speech does mention that to get out of the economic mess and achieve a minimum of 6-7 per cent growth in 2009-10, the new government must be prepared to spend an additional amount equivalent to 0.5 to 1 per cent of the GDP in the full budget. In other words, an additional Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore. Is this good news in the offing? Unfortunately no.

We hope this might translate into a higher budget for children, perhaps in some areas such as education or health or even protection--assuming the ICPS is cleared by the Planning Commission, it will need a much higher outlay. But we have a greater worry, for two reasons. First, the central government has few ways to fund this increase, except two: higher borrowings or more taxes. The first seems difficult, especially since it has already run up a huge borrowing of close to 10 per cent of the GDP both in and out of the budget. As for taxes, despite a big shortfall in 2008-09, the government’s revenue budget remains ambitious, so expect a few new levies. Either way, the general public will bear the greater burden of the fund-raising, and the already disadvantaged and neglected will be hit harder.

Secondly, and more important, a government that enjoyed four years of a striking near-9 per cent growth on average and still could not devote enough attention to areas that are crying out for attention, such as child protection and health, cannot definitely do it in a year of difficulty. For the children of India, 2009-10 clearly doesn’t hold any good tidings. Don’t hold you breath till June, anyway.

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This response to Interim Union Budget is prepared by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, New Delhi. HAQ-CRC works towards the recognition, promotion and protection of rights of all children. It aims to look at the child in an integrated manner within the framework of the Constitution of India, and the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which India ratified in 1992, and contribute to the building of an environment where every child’s rights are recognised and promoted without discrimination. At HAQ we believe that child rights and children’s concerns have to be mainstreamed into all developmental planning and action, and must also become a core developmental indicator.

To carry forward its mandate HAQ undertakes research and documentation. It is actively engaged in public education and advocacy on children’s rights. It also seeks to serve as a resource and support base for individuals and groups dealing with children at every level. It not only provides information and referral service but also training and capacity building of all those working with children or on issues concerning them, and the children themselves.

Over the last nine years HAQ has been working on areas children and governance, violence and abuse of children, child trafficking and juvenile justice. HAQ provides of legal support to children in need, particularly those who are victims of abuse or are in conflict with law.

Besides developing skills for quick and incisive scanning of policy documents, commenting on them, creating database through documentation and research, this has necessitated working with existing networks, building of alliances, building partnership with other actors/stakeholders such as the bureaucrats, parliamentarians, judges and lawyers, police and media.

  Please visit HAQ website <http://www.haqcrc.org/>