The child-care funding cuts come at a time when the central government reduced its allocations to the ministry of women and child development over two years to 2016-17
India with a population of 1.21 billion population stand at the second position as the most populous country in the world after China. India comprises almost 13.1 per cent of child population aged 0-6 years. Children of today are tomorrow’s citizens; hence it is very necessary to provide better health care facilities to them. India accounted almost 43 per cent underweight children against 32 percent in Pakistan, 9 percent in South Africa. Nutritional level among the children is the basic element of their overall mental and physical development. Malnutrition among the children reduced significantly over the time, but still the number of malnourished children is very high in the country. Malnutrition and mortality among children are the two faces of a single coin. Mortality among infants and under-5 children is also a major concern. In India the number of under-5 mortality rate and infant mortality rates are 49 and 42, respectively. Thus, there is a need, to be more focused on the child health issues. (2015-16 Data)
Recently even with greater fiscal autonomy and higher tax revenues shared by the Centre with states, 14 of 20 states surveyed cut spending on a key nutrition program–Supplementary Nutrition Program or SNP–that bridges the gap between a child’s actual and model dietary needs, according to an analysis of national health-spending data.
Under the national child-support system the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the SNP is the most popular service as it is used by 35.6% of urban and 53% rural residents, according to data from the National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4). As many as 55% and 61% of India’s lowest and second-lowest income classes, respectively, depend on the ICDS.
Not just a threat to child health but the fall in funding could also be a threat to future productivity and economic growth. These cuts come three years after the Centre increased the states’ share of net tax revenues from 32% to 42% and at a time when two out of three nutritional parameters improved over 10 years to 2016.
The greater share of net tax revenues to the states followed the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission in 2015.
The cuts in funding made to the SNP by the 14 states range from 3% to 55% over a year to 2016-17, according to a February 2018 budget brief published by the Accountability Initiative, a division of the Centre for Policy Research, a think tank.
The other six states– Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Sikkim and Karnataka – increased funding to the SNP over the same period (by 3% to 22%), data from the brief revealed.
As per report the states that cut funding are: Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tripura, Orissa, Kerala, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Nagaland.
Note: Change is for 2015-16 and 2016-17
Children are better off than before, but progress is slow
India has slowly improved its ranking on a global healthcare access and quality index from 153 in 1990 to 145 in 2016, yet it ranks lower than neighboring Bangladesh and even sub-Saharan Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, we reported on May 23, 2018.
From 2015-6 to 2015-16, Over the 10 years, the proportion of Indian children stunted–short for their age–went down from 38% to 28%, underweight (relative to their age) from 43% to 36%, but wasting–thin for their weight–rose from 20% to 21%, according to NFHS-4 data.
The child-care funding cuts come at a time when the central government reduced its allocations to the ministry of women and child development over two years to 2016-17, before increasing it over the following two financial years.
The allocations for anganwadis (day-care centres) fell over two years to 2016-17 before rising again over the next two, according to the budget brief.
Funding cuts impacting anganwadis
Bihar’s Anganwadis were the worst affected, with no more than 80% working, while Sikkim, Maharashtra and Kerala were the least affected with 99% Anganwadis operational.
As many as 76% of child development project officers and additional child development project officer’s posts were vacant on March 2017 in Maharashtra, while there were no vacancies for the same positions in Bihar and Mizoram, according to the budget brief.
Several important health positions are vacant For example - West Bengal has the most Anganwadi supervisor posts vacant (63%) while Madhya Pradesh has the least (17%). Nationally, vacancies were unchanged between March 2015 and March 2017, data show.
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