Abstract

This brief offers a public expenditure analysis of expenditures and allocations for children for the years 2001 to 2017 (2017-18 Budget estimates) in Karnataka. The discussion is based entirely on the analysis of budget documents of the Government of Karnataka taking into account budget allocations for the present year (2017-18), revised estimates for the previous year (2016-17) and the actual expenditure for all earlier years (2001-2015). This analysis, therefore, does not go into the issues of fund releases and flows that a typical budget tracking exercise undertakes.

The study looks at both the basic rights of the child (education, health and nutrition) as well as enabling programmes, legal and institutional provisions and other child protection schemes. In order to make the analysis more informative, expenditures are placed in two categories: Core and Core Plus. Core expenditure is defined as expenditures considered essential for children. Core Plus expenditure took into account components of programmes which are important but perhaps not as essential.

Conclusions from the study emphasize the need for higher spending on children, greater investment on early childhood development, enhanced expenditure on nutritional programmes for children and greater attention on measures for addressing and monitoring inequalities between gender and social groups. All in all, the study notes that the idea of a child budget must go beyond the idea of budget analysis.

CBPS. (2017). Public expenditure on children in Karnataka: 2001-2002 to 2017-2018. Bengaluru: Centre for Budget and Policy Studies.