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Domain: Governance & Accountability

Comparative Assessment of Child Budget in Eight Indian States

Children are at risk of not developing their full potential, stemming from the disruption in essential child development related services especially early childhood development (ECD) owing to pandemic related fiscal stress on the union and state governments. School closures have caused serious learning losses, and also mental health issues for school-age children calling for immediate and appropriate attention. Therefore, promoting and supporting the protection and expansion of financing for child related services, including addressing the public financing bottlenecks that hinder the equitable implementation of child development becomes the utmost priority.

Commitments to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Convention on Rights of Child (CRC) apart from our own constitutional rights make it imperative for India to ensure that adequate public expenditure is made for children’s well-being. Regular assessment and augmentation of public expenditure on children holds the key. The National Policy for Children in 2013 said that it is important to ‘track allocation and utilization of resources and their impact on outcomes for children with regard to budgets and expenditures on children by all related Ministries and Departments’.

Analysis of the child budget statements, therefore becomes imperative to (i) gauge the comprehensiveness and robustness of the respective approaches, (ii) understand the commitments of the state governments towards the welfare of children and (iii) ensure that the investments of the children are ring fenced during the times of fiscal stress such as the covid-19 pandemic. This is also expected to help the related departments such as Women and Child Development, and Education Or Health, to monitor the child development indicators and public expenditure on children in relation to SDGs more efficiently.

The overarching objectives of the critical review of the Child Budget documents coming from eight states is:

(i) to assess the comprehensiveness and robustness of the approaches and methodologies adopted for preparing these documents from both a comparative perspective and also from the viewpoint of best practices (national and international) with focus on early learning, nutrition and ECD.

(ii) to undertake a sectoral trend and pattern analysis for spending on children including specific sectors, especially focusing on ECCE, ECD, Nutrition, immunization and health while also mapping these against SDGs, and

(iii) to arrive at a standard Methodology/ Framework for preparing Child Budgets in Indian state, based on experiences from within India and international best practices.

Scenario Assessment and Short-term Response Planning for Nutrition-related Service Delivery in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic

India is home to the bulk of the world’s undernourished children, with 50% of Indian children suffering from some form of undernutrition, mainly wasting or stunting. Karnataka has been cited to be one of the states, which have experienced high economic growth but continue to perform poorly on the child nutrition front (NITI Aayog (2016); Banerjee and Klasen (2018))

The Covid-19 pandemic and its associated disruptions to schools and anganwadi centres has resulted in the loss of a guaranteed means of food for children, for many of whom this would be the first full meal of the day. Due to lockdowns, employment and income losses, food supply chain disruptions and diversion of resources to meet immediate public health challenges, nutrition gaps are likely to be further exacerbated unless there is a well-planned strategy to prevent such discontinuity.

There is a need to understand the myriad of ways in which COVID-19 or any such public health disaster can impact the supplementary nutrition interventions to reduce its potential impacts in the future. In this study we propose to understand the multiple potential impacts of COVID-19 on nutrition and nutrition service delivery, and on maternal and child nutrition status in Karnataka as part of this initiative. The project has been undertaken with the objective of preparing for and mitigating negative impacts of Covid-19 on maternal and child nutrition.

Macro-economic Impact of Covid-19 on Chhattisgarh’s Economy & Development of Responsive Financing Models

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the economy of Chhattisgarh, particularly in sectors like construction, travel and tourism, manufacturing, and trade. This policy brief analyses the expected revenue losses for the Government of Chhattisgarh and the reduction in gross state domestic product (GSDP) for the fiscal year, highlighting the strain on fiscal health and its implications […]

Macro-economic Impact of Covid-19 on the Economy of Chhattisgarh: Report II on Economic Growth and Fiscal Health

The Covid-19 pandemic profoundly impacted the global economy, with India experiencing one of the most significant contractions in its economic history. According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), India’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2020-21 contracted by 7.3%, marking a substantial decline from the previous fiscal year. This downturn was particularly pronounced in the services […]

Macro-economic Impact of Covid-19 on the Economy of Chhattisgarh: Report I

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the global economy, with India experiencing a significant contraction in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the fiscal year 2020-21. This report analyses the macroeconomic impact of the pandemic on Chhattisgarh’s economy, highlighting a GDP contraction of 22.8% and 7.5% in the first two quarters, respectively. Key sectors such […]