In January this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ambitious Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save Girl Child) initiative from Panipat, Haryana, promising to address the issue of declining sex ratio. India has seen a steep decline in child sex ratio in the last decade, from 927 (girls per thousand boys in the 0-6 age-group) earlier to 918. But Budget 2015-16 shows a decrease of about Rs. 3,900 crore in allocations for the National Health Mission that has a crucial role in ensuring the health and survival of women and children, the stated BBBP goals.
These and several other contradictory tendencies between stated intent and action on the ground by the NDA government that turns a year old this month have been documented in a citizens’ report put together by the civil society group ‘Wada Na Todo Abhiyan’ slated for formal release on Sunday.
The Save Girl Child initiative also promises to protect girl children from sexual abuse and improving girl child education. Yet, the NDA government has made no effort to make appointments in nodal government agencies such as the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, which monitors the implementation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Right to Education Act, the report notes.
The BJP’s election manifesto spoke of bringing about an economic revival through strengthening the traditional employment bases of agriculture and allied industries. But the budget allocated by the Central government for agriculture is less than 2 per cent of the GDP, which is grossly insufficient to meet farmer’s needs, the report notes.
“Attempts by the Central government to balance this out with the increased rate of compensation for crop losses due accruing to natural disaster can by no means be treated as an important decision,” the report notes.
Employment generation On the employment generation front too, long-term industry trends show that the ‘Make in India’ programme’s ambitious targets to create 100 million additional jobs by 2022 in the manufacturing sector alone may not be realised as data shows industry expansion does not necessarily correlate with job growth. Data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Indian factories show that more than 4,00,000 people lost their jobs during the financial year 2012-13. “India Inc. is automating and squeezing more output from its workers and so needs fewer of them,” the report notes.
With the NDA government’s new codes on wages and industrial relations making it easy to fire workers, with restrictions on collective bargaining, formation of trade unions and enacting a national minimum wage, the tendency of industry to grow at the expense of labour is likely to deepen. The report recommends that labour reforms focus on securing the interest of the working class so that their employment prospects are secured through the ‘Make in India’ programme.
Funds for agriculture The allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture in the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation shows a decline. This decline is to the extent of Rs. 1,713 crore [Rs. 24,910 crore in 2015-16 (Budget Estimate) from Rs. 26,623 crore in the 2014-15 (Revised Estimate)] and to the tune of Rs. 2,848 crore in 2015-16 (BE) compared to 2014-15 (BE).
While India had 2,22,120 operational industrial units during 2012-13, according to the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), a two per cent increase from 2,17,554 units in 2011-2012; people engaged in factories declined from 13.43 million to 12.95 million — a drop of 3.6 per cent.
