Participating in a consultation on ‘Resource Adequacy for Social Sector: Impact of Union Budget 2020-21 on Odisha’ held at CYSD here, noted economists, academia and society leaders expressed concern over low allocations in social sector.
Given the current state of economy, with a slump in rural demand, unmet demand for teachers, paramedical staff and care givers, quality education and health for all, and rural employment, an expansionary budget with a focus on social sector front starting with allocating additional resources for health, education, nutrition, employment guarantee could have made an economic sense. An analysis of Odisha Budget and Accountability Centre of CYSD reveals that the allocation for key human development concerns this year failed to deliver the country’s poor and marginalised, they said.
The 15th Finance Commission recommendations has suggested the devolution from Centre to States at 41 per cent for the year 2020-21, one point decrease from 42 per cent suggested by the 14th FC. Based on this, the overall devolution to the States has been fixed at Rs 78,4,181 crore in 2020-21. In the inter se distribution (distribution among States), Odisha’s share has been fixed at 4.629 percent, which is a little lower than the 14th FC recommendation of 4.642 per cent.
With the new formula, the loss of revenue for Odisha is Rs 102 crore. The grants-in-aid recommended for local self-Governments (both rural and urban) and post devolution revenue deficit grants are in line with the previous Finance Commission’s recommendations.
However, it is good to notice that there is an overall increase in the devolution to rural urban local bodies from Rs 75,918 crore in 2019-20 BE to Rs 99,925 crore in 2020-21 BE, they told.
Prioritising and fast-tracking actions for the last mile are crucial if the goal of “no one is left behind” is to be realised. Yet, there exist significant disparities in the achievement of some of the vital human development components such as IMR - 41, MMR - 130, Under 5 mortality rate – 50, Children Anaemic 38.5 percent, women Anaemic 58.5 percent which are far behind when compared to the global average. On the other hand, health and education didn’t see any significant increases in allocation in the Union Budget 2020-21. The increase in allocation for health and education remained at Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 6000 crore, which are again flat, considering the present inflation rate (around 5 percent), they said.
Even the schemes like Mid Day Meal (MDM) and ICDS have almost stagnated allocation in the budget. Allocation for MDM in budget 2020-21 is Rs 11,000 crore, same as in 2019-20 BE and for ICDS, the allocation has increased by Rs 1,000 crore as compared to the allocation in 2019-20 BE.
If we assume the number of children covered under these schemes remain same in the next year, the real price rise may put problem to serve food and nutrition to the children in the country, they added.