THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was during the 2015-16 fiscal that the state government, banking heavily on central funds, decided to draw up a comprehensive plan for the welfare of marginalised children.
Unfortunately, it was also the fiscal when the centre dramatically withdrew from centrally-sponsored schemes, leaving an impoverished and befuddled state to fend for itself.
It has been officially estimated that the state had lost nearly Rs 500 crore as women and child welfare assistance alone during 2015-16 fiscal, now in its last gap. The worry is that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, when he unveils his budget on February 29, will inflict a bigger shock for the 2016-17 fiscal.
“There were ambitious plans to streamline child welfare, both for children in need of care and protection and also those in conflict with law,” said Subair, a senior Social Justice official.
“Child protection homes had to be set up, district child protection units had to be formed, recruitments had to be stepped up, the functioning of juvenile justice boards and child welfare committees had to be streamlined. But all of a sudden funds dried up,” he said.
The state had expected Rs 405 crore during 2015-16 from the centre for the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), under which all these activities fall. What finally reached the state was Rs 108 crore, a shortfall of nearly 75 per cent.
For 2016-17 fiscal, the state, factoring in the new economic thinking at the centre, realistically expects only Rs 24 crore as central share for ICPS. Intriguingly, the state is not seen to have made an attempt to offset the deficit by increasing its share. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, for instance, has set apart a mere '1.6 lakh as its share for ICPS in the budget for 2016-17.
The fall in ICPS share can also upset social reforms. “From last year, it has been made mandatory for all orphanages to register under the Juvenile Justice Act. If ICPS has been allocated only a pittance, what will the state have to offer when these registered orphanages seek funds under the Act,” Subair asked.
Nutrition schemes for women too have suffered a cut. In the case of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), there was a shortfall of over Rs 100 crore during the ongoing fiscal. ICDS is a crucial social welfare intervention as a slew of education, nutrition, immunization and health services are provided to children below the age of six and lactating mothers through ‘anganwadis’.
The generous flow from the centre to states annually for flagship programmes like National Health Mission (NHM), Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and National Food Security Mission has dried to a trickle since 2015-16.
Mr Jaitley had asked for a revision, in fact an upending, of the funding pattern for schemes like NHM, ICDS and PMGSY where the central component was between 75-100 per cent.
Meaning, from now on almost the entire burden of running these big ticket plan projects will fall upon the states. Planning Board vice-chairman K.M. Chandrasekhar, however, expressed the hope that Mr Jaitley would not slash their share even further. “I do not think there will be cuts in the central share as a sub-group of chief ministers has looked into the issue and the finance ministry guidelines are in conformity with their recommendations,” Mr Chandrasekhar said.
The sub-group had called for a 60:40 sharing pattern for core central schemes like ICPS, ICDS and PMGSY.
