Child Rights & Budget

Sakti Golder
Center for Budget & Governance Accountability
New Delhi

India, home to one fifth of the world’s children, ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in
December 1992. Over the years, India has succeeded in bringing down the Infant Mortality Rate
(IMR); yet it is still much higher than compared to the levels not only in developed countries but also
in many developing countries. On the other hand, there exist huge disparities across regions and
across the states. Despite some progress, India faces many challenges for realizing child rights and
rampant violation of child rights is a grim reality. Partly because of its immensity, India experiences
child rights deprivations in greater absolute numbers than any other country.

Some Glaring facts about Children1

• 26 million children are born in India every year, of whom 1.2 million die within four weeks of
being born, which is 30 percent of the global neo-natal deaths.

• Over 57 percent children die before their first birthday and one out of every 14 children die
before reaching the age of five years.

• 2.5 million Children die in every year, accounting for one in the five deaths in the world, with
girls being 50 percent more likely to die.

• 3 in 4 children are anemic and 1 in 3 is stunned.

• Every 3rd malnourished child in the world is in India. 150 million children are at risk of being
malnourished.

• Of every 100 children who enroll in school, 70 percent drop out before they reach secondary
school. 66 percent of these drop outs are girls.

• India is home to the largest number of child labourers; they number 12.59 million according
to the 2001 census.

• According to NACO there were an estimated 55 thousand HIV infected 0-14 year old children
in India in 2003. UNAIDS, however, put this figure at 0.16 million children.

• India has the largest number of sexually abused children.

The above facts reveal the very dismal status of the children in India. Undoubtedly, India is also far
behind in achieving the different Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Say for an instance, India
set the target of reducing the IMR to 26.7 per thousand live births by 2015, whereas IMR in 2008 is

                                                            
1
 Budget for Children A Summary Report 2004‐05 to 2008‐09, HAQ.  

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still as much as 53. The trend of decline since 1990, if continued, can only take India to an IMR level
of about 46 by 2015, which is far short of the MDG target. Table 1 also shows some other key
indicators regarding the children.

Table 1: Key Development Indicators from NFHS-3

NFHS-2 NFHS-3
Urban (NFHS-3) Rural (NFHS-3)
(1998-1999) (2005-2006)
Indicator India India India India
Mothers who had at least 3
antenatal care visits for their last 44.2 50.7 73.8 42.8
birth# (%)
Births assisted by a
doctor/nurse/LHV/ANM/ other 42.4 48.8 75.3 39.9
health personnel* (%)
Institutional births* (%) 33.6 40.8 69.4 31.1

Mothers who received postnatal

care from a
doctor/nurse/LHV/ANM/ other na 36.8 60.8 28.5
health personnel within 2 days of
delivery for their last birth* (%)

Children 12-23 months fully

immunized (BCG, measles, and 3 42 43.5 57.6 38.6
doses each of polio/DPT)* (%)

Children under 3 years who are

51.0 44.9 37.4 47.2
stunted* (%)
Children under 3 years who are
19.7 22.9 19.0 24.1
wasted* (%)
Children under 3 years who are
42.7 40.4 30.1 43.7
underweight* (%)
Children age 6-35 months who
74.2 78.9 72.2 80.9
are anemic (%)
#For births in the last 3 years
* Based on the last 2 births in the 3 years before the survey to ever-married women
Source: National Family Health Survey- 3

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 • The coverage of antenatal care for mothers (at least 3 antenatal care visits for their last birth
in the last 3 years) has improved from 44.2 percent in 1998-99 to 50.7 percent in 2005-06
at the all India level. But there exist huge rural urban gap.

• The proportion of births assisted by skilled health personnel (based on the last 2 births in the
3 years preceding the survey for ever-married women) in India has marginally improved from
42.4 percent in 1998-99 to 48.8 percent in 2005-06; but, this coverage has reached 75.3
percent in the urban areas while it has reached only up to 39.9 percent in the rural areas.

• The coverage of institutional deliveries has improved from 33.6 percent in 1998-99 to 40.8
percent in 2005-06, but the coverage in the rural areas is a meager 31.1 percent as
compared to the much better 69.4 percent coverage reported for the urban areas.

• The percentage of children in the age group of 12 to 23 months who have received all
recommended vaccines has increased rather slowly from 42 percent in 1998-99 to 43.5
percent in 2005-06.

• The proportion of children under age 3 who are underweight has fallen marginally from 42.7
percent in 1998-99 to 40.4 percent in 2005-06. However, proportion of children under age 3
who are stunted has declined from 51 percent to 44.9 percent. It is alarming to note that the
proportion of children under age 3 who are wasted has increased from 19.7 percent in
1998-99 to 22.9 percent in 2005-06.

If some educational indicators are taken into consideration, the situation is also not satisfactory. As
of 2006-2007, (as per the Statistics of School Education of Government of India) the dropout rate in
school education in India is reported to be 26 percent for classes I-V, but it is a much higher 46
percent for classes I-VIII and goes up to 60 percent for classes I-X. As far as development outcomes
related to education are concerned, one must keep in mind the huge gaps which may be seen in
case of socially disadvantaged groups like SCs, STs in the state.

Table 2: DROPOUT RATES IN CLASSES I-V, I-VIII AND I-X

Classes I- V Classes I- VIII Classes I- X
Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total
ALL CATEOGRIES OF STUDENTS
24.57 26.75 25.60 46.44 45.22 45.90 58.61 61.50 59.88
Scheduled Caste Students
32.33 39.89 35.91 51.56 54.98 53.05 66.58 72.17 69.01
Scheduled Tribe Students
30.57 35.82 33.09 62.78 62.22 62.54 77.32 79.08 78.07
Source: Statistics of School Education of Government of India

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Further, Table 3 shows that there exists signification gender disparity in educational attainment of
the children. Gender Parity in education is declining when moving from lower to upper classes.

Table 3: GENDER PARITY INDEX in India

Classes Classes Classes Classes Classes Classes Classes
I-V VI-VIII I-VIII IX-X XI-XII IX-XII I-XII

ALL CATEOGRIES OF STUDENTS

0.94 0.90 0.93 0.81 0.83 0.82 0.91

Scheduled Caste Students

0.88 0.81 0.86 0.76 0.75 0.76 0.85

Scheduled Tribe Students

0.92 0.85 0.91 0.75 0.63 0.71 0.89

Source: Statistics of School Education of Government of India.

Now, given the very miserable picture of the status of the children in India, it is imperative to take
immediate actions through various policies/programmes for the welfare of the children. For proper
policy prescription, at first, it would be worthwhile to find out the magnitude of resources earmarked
for the children vis-à-vis the requirement for running different programmes.

To find out the magnitude of ‘child budget’ and keeping in mind the different needs of children in our
country, all programmes/ schemes included in the ‘Child Budget’ are categorized into four sectors,
viz.: Child Development, Child Health, Child Education and Child Protection.

Magnitude of Child Budget

The magnitude of ‘Child Budget’ within the Union Budget, i.e. the aggregate outlay for child specific
schemes as a proportion of total budget outlay by the Union Government increased up to 4.1 percent
in 2010-11 (BE) from 3.7 percent in 2009-10 (RE). But, if the allocations earmarked for the children
in the whole period from 2007-08 to 2010-11 are considered, the increase is miniscule in 2010-11
(BE).

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Figure 1: Outlays for Child Specific Schemes as a Proportion of Union Budget (in %)

Total Outlays for Child Specific Schemes as

Proportion of Total Union Budget
6.0
Child Buudget as % of
Total Union Budget
5.0

4.0 4.1
3.9
4.0 3.7
Percentage

3.0

2.0

1.0

0.0
2007-08 RE 2008-09 RE 2009-10 RE 2010-11 BE
Year

Source: GoI, Expenditure Budget Vol. I & II, Union Budget, (various issues).

Further, it is quite disturbing to note that allocations are very much skewed in favour of child
education and child development. Within the total resources earmarked for children in Union Budget
2010-11 (BE), 75 percent is meant for Child Education, 20 percent for Child Development, 4 percent
for Child Health and only 1 percent for Child Protection. So, child protection and child health are the
neglected areas.

Figure 2: Sectoral Composition of the Total Outlay for Children in Union Budget 2010-11
(BE)

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 Composition of total Allocation Earmarked
for Children in the Budget 2010-11 (BE)

1% 4%
20%

Protection

75% Health
Development
Education

 
Mid Term Appraisal of the 11th Five Year Plan

In the Eleventh Five year Plan, some ambitious targets were set for the overall development of
children. With only two years remaining in the 11th Five Year Plan period (2007-08 to 2011-12), the
Planning Commission it was expected that the Union Budget 2010-11 would reflect the Planning
Commission’s suggestions for course correction over the remaining two years starting with 2010-11.
However, with regard to the social sectors, Union Budget 2010-11 does not indicate any such
course-correction for the last two years of the 11th Plan. Rather, it reflects the lack of seriousness on
the part of the government to implement the Planning Commission’s recommendations pertaining to
allocation of funds for some of the important programmes / schemes in the social sectors.

With just one more Union Budget left in the 11th Five Year Plan period (i.e. the Budget for 2011-12),
around 80 % of the outlays recommended by the Planning Commission should have been made for
the Plan programmes / schemes during 2007-08 to 2010-11. However, as shown in Table 4, the
total provisioning in the four Union Budgets during 2007-08 to 2010-11 has been only 12 % of the
recommended outlay for Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), 36 % for Teacher Training;
although, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Mid Day Meal (MDM) schemes have fared better with 77
% and 66 % respectively.

Table 4: Outlays Recommended (by Planning Commission) for Eleventh Plan vs. Union Budget
allocations made in the first four years of the Plan

Plan Allocation Total Union

Outlay
Budget Union Budget
Recommended made in the Union Budget
allocation Allocation
for 11th Plan
(in Rs. Crore) made in the made during
(in Rs. Crore) first 4 years of 2007-08 to
Programme / 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 11th Plan 2010-11
[at current
Scheme prices] $ (RE) (RE) (RE) (BE) (in Rs. Crore) as % of Outlay
Recommended

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 for 11th Plan

Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan (SSA) 71000 13171 13100 13100 15000 54371 76.6

Mid Day Meal

(MDM) 48000 6678 8000 7359 9440 31477 65.6

Teacher Training 4000 312 307 325 500 1444 36.1

Rashtriya
Madhyamik
Shiksha Abhiyan
(RMSA) 22620 1 511 550 1700 2762 12.2

National Rural
Health Mission 89478 10669 11930 13378 15440 51417 57.5
(NRHM)

Integrated Child
Development 42400 4857 5665 8162 8700 27384 64.6
Services (ICDS)

Note: * Figures for Union Budget allocations for these schemes do not include the Lumpsum provision of funds
for North Eastern Region and Sikkim, if any.

Source: Compiled by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) from Eleventh Five Year Plan,
Planning Commission, Govt. of India; and Union Budget, Govt. of India, various years.

The mismatch between the outlays recommended by the Planning Commission and the allocations
made in the Union Budget (from 2007-08 to 2010-11) seems more pronounced in case of some of
the important schemes in Health sector. In the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), which has
direct impact on child health, the total plan allocation made in the Union Budgets for 2007-08 to
2010-11 stands at just 57.5 % of the quantum of funds recommended by the Planning Commission
for the entire 11th Plan period. Likewise, for the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)
scheme, which addresses the development needs of children in the 0 to 6 years age group, the total
allocations made in the Union Budgets for 2007-08 to 2010-11 stands at 65 % of the quantum of
funds recommended by the Planning Commission for the entire 11th Plan period.

Based on the discussion presented above, it comes out that the effort of the Union Government over
the last few years at stepping up priorities for children in the Union Budget leave a lot to be desired.

• If we take into account the fact that children (i.e. all persons up to the age of 18 years)
constitute more than 40 percent of the country’s population and that many of the outcome
indicators show persisting deficits in the development of children; the total magnitude of

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 resources earmarked for children in Union Budget 2010-11 (BE) is only 4.1 percent of the
total Union Budget, appears inadequate to address the various problems confronting
children in India. It reflects the government’s weak commitment towards child rights.

• Moreover, even within this small quantum of resources earmarked for children, the sectoral
composition is heavily skewed. Although the lion’s share of child budget goes for education,
Right to Education for All children is still a distant dream.

• The interventions in Child Protection and child health sectors are still under funded. The
status of health of children reveals the ocean-wide gap between the needs on the ground
and the average allocation in every year.

Despite India having the world’s highest number of sexually abused children and child
labour, it is indeed sad that protection receives the least allocation and also has the
maximum underutilization of scarce resources.

• We would get a clearer picture about the inadequacy of funds allocated, if allocations of
different schemes are analyzed separately. For example, ICDS, country’s largest programme
aimed at early childhood care and development aims at providing package of six services i.e,
supplementary nutrition (SNP), non-formal pre-school education, immunization, health check-
up, referral services, and nutrition and health education. It was estimated that budgetary
resources required (from Union Budget 2010-11) to universalise & improve quality of
services under ICDS services was Rs. 21687 crore. However, only Rs. 8700 crore, which was
grossly inadequate, was allocated in the Union Budget 2010-11 for ICDS.

• Further, various studies found a huge amount of unspent balances in different child specific
programmes. Different Parliamentary Standing Committees and mid-term appraisal of
Planning Commission acknowledge the fact.

• Lastly, the major flagship programmes for the welfare of children, say, ICDS, SSA and
immunization programmes depend heavily on external flow of funds. In 2008-09, external
aid as percentage of Child Budget was as much as 13 percent2. Dependence on external
resources lays countries open to sanctions and withdrawal of funds, and changes global
priorities for funding, impacting availability of resources and thus delivery of programmes.
The beneficiaries – in this case, the children – bear the brunt.

Demands in the Union Budget 2011-12:

• Overall allocation for child specific schemes must be stepped up in the Union Budget 2011-
12. Allocation for the programme like ICDS, SSA should get more allocation for universalize it
and to give quality services.

                                                            
2
 Estimated by HAQ, 2010. 

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• Allocation for child protection must be increased and like many other programmes it should
be utilized properly.

• In the union Budget 2011-12, there must be a quantum in allocation for major child specific
programmes to fulfill the target outlays recommended by the Eleventh Five Year Plan.

• Major child specific programmes should not be kept exposed in the uncertainty of external
flows.