Public Finance for Children (PF4C) across 16 Indian States Completed

Duration: July 2018 to December 2019

Status: Completed

Funder/Partner: UNICEF, New Delhi

The National Policy for Children brought out in 2013 highlighted the state commitment for securing the rights of the child keeping in view the needs of the children at different stages in a life cycle approach. India is a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of Child and committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as well. In this context, it is imperative to understand the commitments of the states through the child rights perspective and that of the social protection framework. The social protection framework of UNICEF provides a holistic perspective to analyze the public expenditure on children. The PF4C analysis provides the much needed tool to understand whether the commitments stated in policies and vision documents actually translated into expenditure and actions.

CBPS has developed a robust methodology for undertaking this analysis. Using the framework that allows including policy and programmatic intervention covering both coping and enabling strategies, we used a methodology that enabled us to do a holistic analysis. The expenditure on children included funds from different schemes from Government of India, expenditures by the state at different levels (state, district, block and below), as well as the expenditures from the parastatal organizations such as state societies for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Rashtriya Madhyamika Shiksha Abhiyaan and National Rural Health Mission.

This study will undertake a national analysis of PF4C for 16 states (unto minor heads) in the first stage. At second stage, the study will carry out a deeper analysis covering details up to Object Head level in six states in two phases. In the final stage, experience of undertaking the PF4C analysis will be converted into a Knowledge Product for the government as well as other research institutions.

 

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