Last Updated : 29st March 2008 |
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UPA Government Fails the Nation on Health & Education
Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, 29 Feb 2009, New Delhi |
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| Despite the rhetorical recognition of the ‘twin pillars of the edifice of social sector reforms’, the UPA government has failed to take the historic opportunity to revamp the educational and health infrastructure of the country, even in the fourth consecutive budget of its government. |
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| The Union Budget announced by P Chidambaram today reflects merely a 20% increase in allocation for education, and 15% increase in allocation for health. This is significantly less than the increases implemented in the previous year to the effect of 34% and 24% respectively for education and health. |
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Budget Allocation for Health Lacks Spirited Leadership
Centre for Health & Social Justice |
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| The FM presented his fifth consecutive budget and congratulated his Government (and himself) for an ‘absorbing and inspiring tale’ of growth over the last four years where the average annual growth was 8.8% over this entire period. |
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| He was emphatic that this year’s budget ‘was about raising sights and doing more and doing better’. It is interesting to review the budget provisions for health in the light of these claims of growth and raising sights ‘to do better’. |
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And Where Are The Women in the Union Budget 2008-09?
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability |
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| The Statement on Gender Budgeting presented along with the Union Budget is welcome. However, it is a rather limited approach if one wants to understand what the Union Budget has to offer to women. |
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| Quite apart from numbers not matching and the patriarchal and misleading assumptions, it is the narrowness of the approach that fails to give a comprehensive picture of the gendered dimension of the budget. It is equally important to take the analysis further and to critically assess whether: (a) these women-specific schemes indeed reach women the way they intend to (i.e., moving from ex-ante analysis to ex-post analysis); and (b) even if they reach women, are they in any way transforming gender roles and constructs or are they simply reinforcing gender stereotypes by just adding to women’s unpaid and reproductive work |
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Budget 2008-09 Reaffirming Rhetoric? Response to the Union Budget 2008-09
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountablity |
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| With the UPA Government approaching the fifth and last year of their tenure, hopes reined high from the Union Budget 2008-09. The Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) has attempted to demystify this Budget from the lens of disadvantaged sections of the population and important social and economic sectors. |
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80 Departments/Ministries Deny Dalits-Adivasis-OBCS-Minorities Share in theBudget
NACDOR |
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| Despite tall claims of the Finance Minister about the financial inclusion, resource allocation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and Minorities, specially the Muslims remain paltry. |
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| Poorest of the poor, socially and geographically excluded Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who form 24.4% (SC 16.2% and ST 8.2%) population have been given only 3.05% of the total allocation in the budget. Socially and Educationally Backward Classes or the Other Backward Classes forming about 52% have received almost nothing in the budget. Minorities forming 18.42% of country's population received only 0.13%. These allocations make mockery of the development of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities. |
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Budget Day – A Black Day for Dalits Again
NCDHR |
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| With false promises Indian state has again betrayed Dalits this year. The towering claims of achieving growth with inclusion have faltered again. |
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| The total budget allocation under Plan Outlay for the year 2008-2009 is Rs. 2,43,385.5 crore and under the SC Sub Plan (SCSP) the Government of India is liable to allocate Rs. 40090.90 crore exclusively for Dalits (16.7% of the total plan budget) but it has allocated just Rs. 11715.07 crore (29% of the total due under the SCSP) for the welfare of SCs, which means again SCs have been deprived by Rs 28375.9 crores. This year again it has diverted 71% of the amount SCs are due to receive under the SCSP! This exposes the stark ‘untouchability’ that is being practiced by the finance ministry and in the whole union budget. |
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Wada Na Todo Partners in Bihar Call for Poor-centric Budget
People’s Budget Initiative, Bihar |
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| A Consultation on the State Budget 2008 in Bihar was organized by Wada Na Todo partners, VSSS & Praxis. The meeting was held in the State Legislative Assembly on 6 Feb 2008 and senior legislator Bhola Prasad Singh presided over the discussions. |
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| Jagadananda, Amitabh Behar and Paul Divakar represented the efforts of the broader efforts of the Wada Na Todo campaign in this consultation, which received wide media coverage in Bihar. |
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