Just a morsel for mid-day meal scheme

At a time when about 48 per cent of children below five years are suffering from malnourishment, the Central Budget has reduced the allocation for mid-day meal scheme drastically.

The largest school feeding programme in the world, which had Rs 847 crore in 2008-09, has an allocation of only Rs 611 crore this time, implying a decline of 28 per cent. India is home to the maximum number of malnourished children, even more than Sub-Saharan Africa. President Pratibha Patil, in her address to the joint session of Parliament, had asked the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to take up the issue on a mission mode.    Many of the flagship schemes of the UPA government also seem to be slipping down in UPA II’s priority. Allocations for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan have remained stagnant, which in real terms is a decline. Overall allocations for health and education have gone up but are still pitifully low when compared to what was committed in the National Common Minimum Programme (6 per cent in education and 3 per cent in health). Aam aurat neglected While the UPA never misses an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to aam aadmi, aam aurat seems to have gone down in UPA’s priority. The total outlay for the nodal ministry for women has decreased from Rs 466.5 crore in 2008-09 to 385.13 crore in 2009-10. The need for institutional support to working women has been trivialised by decreasing the allocation of government supported women’s hostels from Rs 20 crore to Rs 10 crore. “This means the vulnerability of young women in an increasing contract-oriented private economy has not been appreciated,” said a budget review report prepared by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a research body. The comprehensive scheme for combating trafficking has also suffered with the allocation reduced from Rs 10 crore to Rs 5 crores. The much-advertised national mission for empowerment of women gets an allocation of only Rs 1 crore. Schemes for women under the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare (MWCW) have seen a staggering decline of 42 per cent when compared to 2008-09. Important schemes for women under the MWCW, including Swayamsiddha, Scheme for Leadership Development of Minority Women, Swadhar, Hostels of Working Women, Scheme for Combating trafficking, Support to Training and Employment Programme and Priyadarshini Scheme have recorded decline in absolute numbers, in comparison to figures of 2008-09. Other schemes such as condensed courses for women, short stay homes and awareness generation programme have stagnated,  which in real terms is a decline. In the Budget Speech, the Finance Minister announced that the corpus of the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) would be increased “in recognition of its role as an instrument of socio-economic change and development” from Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore, over the next few years but allocations for RMK have declined from Rs 32 crore to Rs 20 crore. As the CBGA study has pointed out,  the Union Budget 2009-10 has not been kind to the fate of dalits, tribals and children. Plan allocations for Scheduled Castes (as a percentage of Plan Allocations under Central Government Ministries) have gone down from 7.07 per cent (2008-09) to 6.49 per cent (2009-10). Similarly, planned allocations for Scheduled Tribes have also seen a decline from 4.2 per cent to 4.1 per cent. Equally unfortunate is that the total magnitude of child budget as a percentage of the total Union Budget has also gone down from 4.9 per cent in 2007-08 to 4.1 per cent this year.