The Odisha Government is mulling a Child Policy for the State for a stronger focus on development of children.
While the State Government has introduced a Child Budget to cater to specific needs of the children, it is planning a policy framework with support of the UNICEF to mainstream children’s development.
Child budgeting is a Public Finance Management (PFM) strategy that analyses and endorses the responsiveness of the State Government and its commitment towards children.
According to official sources, in order to achieve targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 relating to children, a Child Policy would go a long way in this regard. The policy would aim at bringing in benefits for children across age groups as children constitute almost one-third of the State’s population of 4.2 crore as per Census 2011.
The State Government introduced its first Child Budget in 2019-20 with support of the UNICEF. Officials say the current Child Budget for FY 2022-23 is based on three years, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The total number of child-centric schemes and programmes across 13 major departments is 260 in 2022-23.
Looking at the growing requirement of the children, the Government is increasing per-child spending from Rs 16,593 in 2021-22 to Rs 18,730 in 2022-23. In fact, while in 2020-21 Rs 20,226 crore was spent on children, in 2021-22 it went up to Rs 24,721crore; and in 2022-23, the budget allocation is Rs. 27,246 crore.
While the School & Mass Education has the lion’s share of 35.36%, the ST SC Development has 30.42% and the Women & Child Development 22.81%.
So far as education of children is concerned, it has a 62.3% share while development and health constitutes 19.7% and child protection 8.75% share of the Child Budget.
Shares of expenditure on children to total expenditure (State’s total Budget) and to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current price (2022-23 Budget Estimate) has been estimated as 13.19% and 3.79%, respectively.
The Government aims at investing more on children and adolescents as it is critical to achieving equitable and sustainable development for the present and future generations. Officials say adequate budgeting and efficient spending will ensure the rights of all children and they are protected and promoted and that no child is left behind.