Budget provision: Pressing need for helping farmers facing extreme distress situations

By Bharat Dogra

At a time when the union government is in the process of finalizing its allocations for various schemes and programs, it is important to re-emphasize the need for increasing the allocations for some high priority schemes and programs.

The union government has a provision for pensions for elderly persons, widows and disability affected persons under the National Social Assistance Program (NSAP) but the allocations for this program has been stagnating at very low levels. In fact the union government offers just INR 200 per month for elderly persons and INR 300 per month for widows. In most states these amounts increase because of the higher contributions of the state governments, but the contribution of the union government is also overdue for a significant increase. In fact the government must go beyond incremental increase and announce a significant new initiative for pensions that assures much higher pensions to all elderly persons who are currently either denied any pensions or receive very low amounts, as well as to other vulnerable sections of the population ( such as widows and disability affected persons) regardless of their age.

Mid-day meals served at schools have become an increasingly accepted means of improving child nutrition in India, and often important claims are made regarding the improved quality of food served that is served on various week days. However visits to schools often reveal that the quality of food is below the expected norm and the cooking conditions are also not satisfactory. The village women who are employed to cook these meals, who are generally from very poor background, generally get very low wages and these too are often delayed for a very long time. Prof. Jean Dreze has estimated, comparing the latest allocation for mid-day meals with the allocation made in 2014-15, that after adjusting for inflation, the most recent allocation of INR 12,467 crore was less than 40% compared to the 2014-15 allocation of INR 13,215 (adding up the nominal reduction as well as that caused by price-rise). This is a very disturbing state of affairs. As a school headmaster in a remote village of Jharkhand asked me in some desperation recently—How can we be expected to serve high nutrition, good quality food on such a low budget? Hence a significant increase in the budget for mid-day meals is also overdue.

The scheme for helping pregnant women can be of great importance for protecting their health and well-being at an important stage in their life. This also has a positive impact on the health of the child and increases the chances of the child getting breast feeding for adequate duration. This should be extended to three children and in addition the amount per birth should be doubled to make it INR 10,000. The benefits in terms of health and welfare will be much higher compared to the money involved. In addition the anganwadi scheme should also get a significant raise.

The demand for a significant increase in the allocation for rural employment guarantee scheme or NREGA has been frequently voiced in recent times and this is certainly needed. However in this context several other implementation reforms are also needed for this important scheme to realize the high hopes that it had initially aroused among the weakest sections in rural areas.

While the government has often emphasized the need for promoting natural farming, the resource allocations have been generally very inadequate. Most of the agricultural subsidies are still going to chemical fertilizers. If the government agrees to give much more to those adopting natural farming, this will be helpful particularly for those farmers who face difficulties in the initial phase.

There is clearly a pressing need for helping farmers facing extreme distress situations, and if a significant fund (in addition to disaster relief already available) to meet their special needs is available, then this can help to not only provide relief but also to save several lives.

Visits to several government schools in remote villages revealed the extent to which education here is adversely affected by lack of adequate number of teachers. The frequent absence of adequate number of doctors and other important health personnel in government hospitals and health centers serving rural patients proves even more costly. There have been several pleas for very significant rise in budgets for health and education which should not be ignored any further.

The allocations for the labor ministry, and for the ministries for scheduled castes and tribes and other weaker sections should increase significantly. In the context of labor ministry there is need or special initiatives to help migrant workers and to improve protection of workers from occupational diseases and accidents.

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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include "When the Two Streams Met", "A Day in 2071" and "Man over Machine"

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