Growing complacent

COMMENT: Subrat Das, Coordinator, CBGA

On the expenditure front, the Congress-led government seems to be growing complacent about its Budgetary policies for social sectors. While the Budget does pay attention to some of the important sectors, like rural and urban infrastructure, rural livelihood, farmers’ debt and university and technical education, it fails to pay adequate attention to problems in social sectors.

Although the finance minister boasted of a ‘paradigm shift’ to make the development process more inclusive; most of the schemes in the social sector still follow a welfarist approach and provide low-cost, ad hoc interventions, instead of an entitlement-based approach which would require strengthening of regular and sustained interventions.

For instance, while the finance minister observed that all services under ICDS would be extended, with quality, to every child under the age of six by March 2012, the child development project officers handling ICDS in districts are now being asked to take up the additional responsibility as protection officers for implementation of the Domestic Violence Act in many states, which could lead to further weakening of the system implementing ICDS.