Facing flak over diminishing allocation for children in the budget, Meghalaya social welfare minister Deborah Marak on Tuesday said she will take up the matter with the government to make the budget more child friendly.
“I am aware of the funds constraint especially for children. We will take it up with the government to consider increasing budget allocation for children and their activities,” Marak told , acknowledging that the present fund allocation is not adequate.
She said she will take up with the government to make budget allocation more child-friendly amidst criticism from the Guwahati-based North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC) and Delhi-based HAQ: Centre for Child Rights on the low allocation of funds for children.
In their report – Budget for Children in Meghalaya 2015-16 released on Monday, the NESRC and HAQ stated that there was not enough funds for children even as members urged the government to improve fund allocation for children to ensure welfare programs for them are taken up in right earnest.
NESRC Senior Fellow K K Sen pointed out that out of Rs 100 of the government, only Rs 4.53 is allocated for 47 per cent of the population which comprise children in the state.
Expressing concern, Sen said both the state general budget and the budget for children had seen a reduction in the 2015-16 budget when compared to last year’s budget.
With the state budget falling by about 6.5 per cent, Sen said the children’s share is likely to get reduced even more by another 50 per cent.
NESRC director M Pereira observed that NE states should make an effort to disaggregate allocations and spending for children in the NE.
HAQ Co-director Enakshi Ganguly Thukral maintained that none of the states in India had implemented the budget prioritization for children and it is up to the states now to start rethinking the budget allocation for children’s welfare.