Budget Analysis as an Innovative Strategy in Furthering the Case of Early Childhood Care and Education in India

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1 Commission South and West Asia Budget Analysis as an Innovative Strategy in Furthering the Case of Early Childhood Care and Education in India Madhumita Purkayastha World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education September 2010 Moscow, Russian Federation

2 Budget Analysis as an Innovative Strategy in Furthering the Case of Early Childhood Care and Education in India Presented by Madhumita Purkayastha, HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, India World Conference on ECCE, September 2010,Moscow

3 Why Budget Analysis? Because. Budget is not merely an economic document but an indicator of nation s priorities and intent. Government s Commitments towards citizens get realisation through its financial allocation in programmes and schemes.

4 Budget gives us information on: Programmes and schemes implemented in the country and for whom Outlay (allocation) for programmes Target it had set out to reach in a definite time period Expenditure against the allocation which talks about performance

5 Budget for Children measuring State s performance in the realisation of children s rights and establishing the political space for children and their concerns

6 BUDGET for Children in India Pioneered by HAQ:?Centre for Child Rights First phase-2001 HAQ undertook a decadal analysis HAQ s work on the Budget for Children (BfC) established the need for such analysis and set the initial direction for developing a methodology to do this more effectively

7 WHAT IS BUDGET for Children (BfC)? Budget for children is not a separate budget. It is an attempt to disaggregate from all allocations made, those made specifically for children.

8 UNCRC State parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of available resources and where needed the framework of international cooperation Article 4, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child India has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992 and has thus promised to place Children's Rights at the forefront of development.

9 Continuous Advocacy to establish BfC lead to acceptance by the government

10 Government of India has adopted Child Budget as On October 26, 2005 in a meeting of State Secretaries organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the government promised that it would henceforth undertake Child Budgeting. its mandate

11 Finance Minister finally accepts BfC We will score another 'first' this year. A statement on child related schemes is included in the budget documents and Honourable Members will be happy to note that the total expenditure on these schemes is of the order of Rs. 33,434 crore..p.chidambaram, Budget

12 Once BfC or child Budgeting was Recognised it has been used for To file a Petition with the National Commission for Women to argue for inclusion of 0-6 in Right to Education Amendment Developing a Children s Manifesto File legal petitions on right to education in Delhi High Court Questions in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies Strengthening arguments of various campaigns such as Global Week of Action Against Unfair Trade Policies; Campaign against Child Labour, Campaign against Child Trafficking

13 BfC leading to Policy Change Consistent emphasis on low allocations and spending on child protection at national and state level and the need for investing in creating a Protective Environment The Integrated Child Protection Scheme

14 Right to Food Campaign- A Case Study on Using Budget and Costing to further ECCE

15 The famous Right to Food Campaign (RTF) in India has used budget findings to strongly argue against poor implementation and underutilisation of resources in programmes and schemes meant to curb malnutrition among children, prevent hunger deaths and ensure food security. One such programme is Integrated Child Development Scheme.

16 Campaign conducted series of surveys in different parts of the country Surveys revealed that services under ICDS were not reaching the beneficiaries in the way it should have and nor were they always accessible.

17 Key intervention areas Lack of infrastructure Lack of quality service delivery (by workers) and existence of access-less habitations (In 2004, going by the norms of the scheme it was found that there shortages of 1.1 million centres) Much of this was directly related to inadequate resources

18 The research findings were substantiated by the budget analysis which very clearly indicated lack of adequate funding, allocations lying unspent, even misappropriation and embezzlement of funds.

19 Basic recommendations were: Revision in the norms of per beneficiary cost of supplementary nutrition and preschool education with special emphasis on malnourished children (financial proposal for revised norms were submitted), Revision in the population norms for opening up AWCs in remote and hard to reach areas area in order to reach those left out,

20 Upgrading the physical infrastructure of AWCs, Increase the honourarium of the centre workers and helpers Responding to disaster situations (floods, earthquakes, conflict, etc.) by opening emergency centres in the area as soon as possible.

21 Strong and consistent advocacy resulted in significant changes In 2008, per beneficiary cost of supplementary nutrition was raised from Rs 2 to Rs 4 for 0-6 year group, from Rs 2.70 to Rs 6 for severely malnourished children, and from Rs 2.3 to Rs 5 for pregnant women and nursing mothers.

22 Secondly, to expand the reach of ICDS services, population norms with special reference to remote areas were relaxed. Third, wages of centre workers were raised and a life insurance programme launched for them. Fourth, inter departmental linkages were stressed for smooth functioning of the schemes and lowered burden on workers.

23 Role of judiciary in the whole process is worth mentioned. Budget analysis as a tool to monitor performance of government can be successful only when it is linked with other machinery and wings of the government like legislature and judiciary.

24 Strategy for Budget Analysis Advocacy Advocacy efforts should be directed at identifying the issues, highlighting Government s commitment towards their implementation, and monitoring the rights. To use budget as a successful tool of advocacy it is pertinent to link it with the other wings of the government.

25 It is important to follow the budget timeline. Involve media to highlight and generate a debate around the issue.

26 THANK YOU