The 5^th Estate (EB): No.09

FEBRUARY 2002

Published by CUTS Centre for  Consumer  Action, Research & Training (CART) 

Jaipur, India

If by chance you are receiving this e-newsletter inadvertently, we apologise for the same. Please do let us know to make the necessary changes.sddddd

Contents:

1. Union Budget & Child Health

 2. Panchayat Budget Analysis- Advocacy tools

Union Budget & Child Health

·        Programmes and Schemes

·        A brief Analyses of Union Budget on Elementary Education – 1990-91 to 2000

The Union Budget of health of children has been analysed on the basis of the budget for the various programmes implemented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Health being primarily a state budget, a holistic assessment of financial commitments to children's health would be possible only if the state budget are factored in and similarly a study of the state budget on health alone will not give a complete picture.  This prompted the CUTS team to make an analyses of the Union Budget on Child Health.  Our previous issue of The Fifth Estate had carried some analyses on the health status of children of Rajasthan.

Key findings from these analyses indicate the following:

•            Over the last decade, the percentage expenditure on child health has been an average of 0.2 percent
  of the total union budget.  The maximum that it even went up to has been 0.3%.  In other words, 1990-91 to 1998-99, of every Rs. 100 spent in the union budget, only 20 paise has been spent on   
  children’s health.

•              Inspite of consistent rise in the overall health expenditure for children, its percentage with respect to  
  expenditure in the overall social sector has gone down.  Infact, it has almost halved since 1996-97, when it was 4.5 percent of the Union Budget.

•             Between 1991-92 to 1998-99, the average dependence on external aid for meeting the health needs of children has been 50.7 percent. In 1998, this had gone up to 79 percent.  This is one of the reasons as to why there has been sudden increase/decrease in the estimates and expenditure – foreign exchange fluctuation.

•             In 2000-01, the government projects its dependence on external aid for child health at Rs. 82.70. In other words, the government expects to spend as little as Rs. 17.30 from its own resources.

•             Of every Rs. 100 spent totally on Social Sector needs in the Union budget, an average of Rs. 3.26 goes for the health of children.  It was Rs. 1.90 in 1990-91. Maximum expenditure on health of children in the Social Sector was Rs. 4.50 in 1996-97.

•             Despite the introduction of the Reproductive and Child Health Programme (RCH) in 1997-98, there has been no significant change in the total child health budget.  The Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Programme (CSSM) which was in existence till 1997-98 was merged with the RCH programme.  The RCH programme became popular and took off in a big way in 1998-99, however, the overall budget for child health infact declined during that year.  It was low even in 1999-2000.

Some qualitative findings on the status of child health in India in the last decade

•           There are not enough beds to accommodate all the 25 million annual births occurring in the country

•           One in every 13 infants dies before reaching the age of one year and one in every 9 children dies before reaching the age of five.  The status is the same as in 1961.

•            Approximately 70 percent of infant deaths occur in the first week of life.

•           Acute Lower Respiratory Infection continues to claim 15 to 20 percent of infant deaths, especially in the first 3 months of life.

•             Every 7-8 lakh children die from a preventable disease like diarrhoea.

•             There are nearly 75 million malnourished children below the age of 5 years in the country.

Panchayat Budget Analysis- Advocacy tools  

Ushering the final phase of the State Accountability Project i.e., grassroots advocacy, a training workshop was organised at Chittorgarh on the 12^th Feb 2002.  The aim of the workshop was to build capacities of our networkers, namely, district and block co-ordinators of the project to understand and comprehend  some of the key findings of our budget analyses.  They were also trained to disseminate the information through grassroots meetings and chaupal bhaitaks (Village square meetings).

They were also trained to collect and collate their experiences on issues and send them to us.  This would work two-ways, one is the formulation of action sheets and the other is to use this information for policy advocacy.

The networkers were trained to use the analysed information and the experiences of people in forming small reader friendly documents and questions which could be raised at the gram sabhas and ward sabhas.

The future programme/s of the project was also discussed, which would primarily consist of interviewing beneficiaries of various schemes on how they found the scheme, how they got to know about the schemes, how easy was it to access benefits and so on.  They were trained to prepare brief questionnaires for the purpose. 

The workshop had a good turnout, with all our networkers, some grassroot NGOs not connected with our project directly, and representatives from the district and block level administration actively participating.

About ‘The 5^th Estate’

This is a strictly non-commercial and educational service for non-profit organisations and individuals. For subscription/more information please write to: 

CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CUTS-CART)

D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park, Jaipur 302016, India

Ph: 91.141.2282821, Fax: 91.141.2207486/2203998

E-mail: cuts@cuts.org

Website: www.cuts-international.org 

PURSUING SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ECONOMIC EQUITY WITHIN AND ACROSS BORDERS SINCE 1983.