The share of the Union Funds allotted for the social sector has declined quickly in recent times. Knowledge present that the outlays to most schemes beneath the agricultural improvement, training, well being, and social welfare heads have both declined or stagnated.
Desk 1 reveals the allocations for varied social sectors as a share of the whole Funds.
Expenditure on well being as a share of the whole Funds declined from 2.47%-2.22% within the FY18-22 interval to 1.85%-1.75% within the FY23-25 interval. The share of the whole Funds allotted to the Ministry of Rural Growth didn’t cross the 6%-mark within the final three years, which was the case for a few years prior.
Equally, allocations for larger training as a share of the whole Funds declined from the 1.57%-1.37% vary in FY17-20 to 1.27%-0.88% in FY21-25. Allocations for varsity training declined from the two.18%-1.96% vary to 1.61%-1.23% and allocations for social welfare schemes declined from the 1.89%-1.61% vary to 1.17%-0.97% in the identical interval.
The lowered allocations will be higher understood on the scheme stage. Desk 2 reveals the allocations for varied social sector schemes as a share of the whole Funds.
Notably, allocations for schemes such because the Mahatma Gandhi Nationwide Rural Employment Assure Scheme (MGNREGS), launched beneath the United Progressive Alliance authorities, have declined considerably over time.
The ₹86,000 crore (Funds Estimates) allotted for MGNREGS for 2024-25 shaped only one.78% of the whole Funds, a 10-year low. Newest information present that the Rural Growth Ministry was wanting ₹4,315 crore, which resulted in a delay within the disbursement of wages to MGNREGS staff.
Allocation for the nationwide social help programme, which incorporates outdated age pension, widow pension, and incapacity pension, has declined as a share of the whole Funds from the vary of 1.21%-0.36% within the years FY19-21 to about 0.2% within the final 4 years.
The allocations for the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) scheme as a share of the whole Funds declined to 0.26% in FY25 (Funds Estimates) — the bottom within the final 9 years — besides FY24 (Revised Estimates).
The first goal of the scheme is to enhance the dietary standing of kids finding out in Courses 1 to eight in eligible colleges. It was earlier referred to as the Nationwide Programme of Mid-Day Meals in Faculties.
There have been some exceptions to this development: allocations beneath the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY)-Rural, and PM Faculties for Rising India (PM SHRI) as a share of the whole Funds have been on an rising development or a minimum of stagnating. Notably, all these schemes have been launched submit 2014.
With the Funds for the following monetary 12 months set to be introduced on February 1, it will likely be essential to look at how the declining allocations for the social sector are being addressed. The sector has beneath its umbrella a bunch of essential schemes, as proven in Desk 3. The desk reveals main expenditure heads beneath every social sector.
The quantity within the desk corresponds to a scheme/expenditure head’s share in every sector’s complete finances. As an illustration, about 33% of the well being finances for the present 12 months went to a versatile pool for use by States for his or her well being wants and 20.6% was allotted to autonomous our bodies similar to AIIMS. Near half of the agricultural improvement finances was given to MGNREGS and over 30% went to PMAY-Rural.
Supply: The information for the charts have been sourced from Union Funds paperwork
sambavi.p@thehindu.co.in
vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in
samreen.wani@thehindu.co.in
Printed – January 29, 2025 08:00 am IST
