Govt cuts spending on education, health of children: CRY

New Delhi, March 2 : The Union Budget for 2015-16 has cut spending on child education, development, health and protection as compared to last year, child rights organisation CRY has said.

Criticising the Union Budget for 2015-16, NGO Child Rights and You (CRY) has said "in absolute terms" child budget has decreased from Rs 81,075.26 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 57,918.51 crore in 2015-16.

It has said as a proportion of the total expenditure of the government, the child budget has seen a "sharp decline" from 4.52 per cent in 2014-15 to 3.26 per cent in 2015-16.

It has also said that within the total child budget in 2015-16, education has received priority and as a result the distribution of resources earmarked for children has become "skewed", compared to last year.

According to CRY's analysis, child education would receive 79 per cent followed by child development with a share of 15.2 per cent and child health and child protection would get only 3.9 and 1.8 per cent of the resources, respectively.

"It is worrisome that the allocation for Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) has declined from Rs 18,195 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 8,335.77 crore in 2015-16. On Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), the allocation increased by only Rs 2.23 crore compared to the previous budget," it has said in a press release.

"Similarly, massive cuts have been announced in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Rs 22,000 crore from Rs 27,758 crore in 14-15) and mid day meal scheme (Rs 9,236 crore as against Rs 13,215 crore in 14-15)," it said.

PTI