Child-centric budget booster for state’s health, economy: C’garh Unicef chief

The Chhattisgarh (CG) government is going to present a child-specific budget in the Assembly on Monday. Avdhesh Mallick talks to Job Zachariah, Chief, UNICEF Chhattisgarh, which is a pioneer organisation working on child rights. The state government is a technical partner of the organisation. Excerpts:

➤ What features are you hoping to see in upcoming childspecific general budget? First, I thank the government for planning to present a child-centric budget. It is a welcome step. Secondly, the budget should be spending more on child development and it must be resultoriented. Indicators of a developed country or a state is how much it invests in child education, health, nutrition, sanitation, water, skill development, and others. It must be clear how much the government will spend on child development. It will be a major feature.

➤ Which area should get more attention?

Nutrition must get priority, because malnutrition is quite high -- 37% children are stunted due to it. Child health should be the second area of focus because IMR (infant mortality rate) is high. You know, due to high IMR 69% of children die in the first year. The positive part is that the Chief Minister's area of major concern is the high rate of malnutrition. He declared publicly that malnutrition in the state is a bigger challenge than the Naxal problem. He launched Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan. Hence, he will focus more on it. In addition, the second area should be health and third education.

➤ Why spend more on child development?

I will tell you an interesting fact: the state government suffers a loss of 6% in GDP due to malnutrition, which rests around Rs 5-6,000 crore. If school education increases by one year, GDP gains by 10%. Ill sanitation makes a loss of 5% to exchequer. These data are based on global studies by the World Bank and other agencies. Therefore, we wanted that government to focus on children.

➤ Is the govt comfortable in making huge investments? Initially, the government may face some problems in making such investments but in the long run it will reap benefits in the terms of increase in income and boost in the economy. To tackle the challenges in the child development sector, how should the government plan and for what tenure?

As long as the problem persists. However, it should be a mix of short- term and longterm plans. Children in naxal affected areas face several issues related to child development and education.

Children are collective responsibilities for all and everybody should cooperate on child development and education. At least they must get education till 18 to let them groom and develop.