Anurag Thakur holds 10th pre-Budget consultation meeting

Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur on Monday held the 10th and final pre-Budget consultation meeting with representatives from Health, Education and Rural Development sectors in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2020-21.

The main areas of discussion by the representatives in the meeting was related to improving efficiency in delivery of health services, devising innovative ways to reach primary health care facilities for marginalised sections, improving learning outcomes at primary level while also making secondary and higher level education accessible and affordable, reforms related to pension and social protections especially for the weaker sections, read a statement.

In the meeting, discussions were also held on the focus of government on public investment in the social sector, gender equality with the bottom's up methodology, ways to boost the economic and social infrastructure of rural sector and ways to eradicate unemployment and poverty through development of agriculture and allied sector as well as non-farm sector.

Along with Thakur, also present in the meeting were Rajeev Kumar, Finance Secretary; Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DEA; Preeti Sudan, Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare; Amit Khare, Secretary (Additional Charge), Department of School Education and Literacy; Amarjeet Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development; Balram Bhargava, Secretary, DHR and DF, ICMR; V.K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog; Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT; KV Subramanian, CEA, and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.

Some of the suggestions given by the from different sectors were benefits of child budgeting; a dedicated national fund for protection of children; eradication of child labour; collecting gender disaggregated data by a national mission; policy to encourage healthy food habits via measures like higher taxes on sin products; broadening, expanding and strengthening PDS; land titles to women in view of increasing feminisation of agriculture; changes in general procurement guidelines to include disabled-friendly technology; waiver of tax on assisted technology for disabled persons; and better compliance of Right to Education and more financial allocation for secondary level schools, especially to support girl child and widening family healthcare support.

Among other suggestions made were augmenting pre-conception, antenatal and postnatal nutrition; employment generation with skill matching for youth in urban areas; focused skill development training for Adivasi and Dalit women; attracting more talent to aspirational districts with provision of tax holiday and a more effective monitoring of funds at Centre-State level.

Major participants in the meeting were Abhinav Prakash, CSR Initiatives, Rashrtiya Sewa Bharati; Ambrish Rai, National Convenor, Right to Education Forum; Ankita Upreti, Board Member, SEWA Bharat; Anshu Tiwari, Senior Manager, Prayas; Ashok Bharati, Chairman, NACDOR; Adikanda Singh, National Co-ordinator, Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolan, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights; and Bhavna B. Mukhopadhyay, Chief Executive, Voluntary Health Association of India among others.