House panel points to shortfall in allocation

need to increase the percentage share of budget of WCD ministry in the budget to meet needs so that schemes being run for them do not suffer any shortfall in resources

NEW DELHI: The money set aside yearly for the Union ministry of women and child development (WCD) has remained stagnant at around 1% of the entire government of India budget, which is a cause of “serious concern and introspection”, a parliamentary panel has said.

The WCD ministry, responsible for creating an enabling environment for both women and children to access fundamental services, should be given a greater share, the parliamentary standing panel on human resource development said. The panel is headed by Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha member Satyanarayan Jatiya.

“... there is an urgent need to increase the percentage share of b u d g e t o f t h e Mini s t r y o f Women and Child Development in the GOI budget to meet the needs of population of women and children so that schemes and programmes being run for them do not suffer any shortfall in resources,” the committee’s demand for grants report for 2020-21 said.

In 2016-17, the WCD ministry’s allocation was ~17,408 crore and made up 0.88% of the total budget, which rose to 1.03% of the total budget in 2017-18, when the allocation was ~22,095 crore. In 2018-19, the WCD’S allocation of ~24,700 crore was 1.01% of the total budget.

In 2019-20 the allocation of ~29,165 crore accounted for 1.05% of the total budget. The ministry’s current budget of ~30,007 crore is equivalent to 0.985% of the total budget.

In a presentation to the com

COMMITTEE REPORT

mittee on February, WCD secretary Rabindra Panwar said that while there had been a gradual increase in the budgetary provisi ons of t he ministry si nce 2017-18, the ministry’s current allocation of ~30,007.10 crore had been made against a projected demand of ~33,720 crore.

In its report, the panel also noted gross under-utilisation of funds across some of the key schemes of the ministry.

Among such schemes was the Poshan Abhiyan Scheme, the multi-ministerial nutrition mission, which was allocated ~3,400 crore in the revised estimates in 2019-20. The ministry had utili sed only ~ 11,09.09 crore or 32.62% of the funds as of January 31, 2020.

The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme, which saw an allocation of ~200 crore last year, spent only ~57.90 crore as of January 31, 2020. This accounted for only 28.95% of the allocation.

The panel has, in conclusion, suggested that the gap between the projected demand of the ministry for each of its programmes and the actual allocations needs to be bridged, and also asked the ministry to exercise financial prudence and use the allocated funds optimally and judiciously.