New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) Government spending on the social sector has been reduced in the Union Budget 2023-24 by cutting expenditure on schemes such as the Public Distribution System, anganwadis, pensions and MGNREGA, civil society members said on Monday.
It may negatively impact the post-Covid recovery for the vulnerable sections of society, they said.
At a press conference here, activists from the Right to Food Campaign, an informal network of individuals and organisations for the realisation of the right to food in India, said the budget has reduced the food subsidy allocation by over Rs 89,000 crore.
They also pointed out that the allocation to flagship rural employment scheme — Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act — in real terms after calculating inflation is the lowest ever.
Talking about the MGNREGA, activist Nikhil Dey said the low allocation is an “assault on the peoples’ right to work”.
Dey said, “Rs 1.24 lakh crore was required just to give assured 40 days of work to all those active job cardholders this year. As of today, there are pending liabilities of almost Rs. 17,000 crore and the current budget fails to make allocations to address this or current inflation.” “The amount given in the budget means in real terms only about 20 days of guarantee for those who go for work as of today,” he said.
Responding to the government’s clarification that MGNREGA is a demand-based scheme and therefore something for which the budget can be revised later, Dey said, “such assurances ring hollow.” “In the last year, additional demand of Rs 25,000 crore was made in November while the government has only now made provision for Rs. 16,000 crore through Revised Estimates and the state of West Bengal which accounts for 10 percent of the workers and budget of NREGA has not got any funds for over a year,” he said.
Dey added that MGNREGA also provides a boost to the rural economy by increasing the spending capacity of people, adding that the reduction will impact the post-Covid recovery in rural areas.
Talking about the National Food Security Act, Bharadwaj said the Budget has reduced the food subsidy allocation by over Rs 89,000 crore.
“The Rs 1.97 lakh crore that has been allocated is barely enough to meet the requirements of the regular entitlements under the National Food Security Act,” she said.
“While on the one hand entitlements for those with rations have been halved, on the other hand there is no provision for food security for those without ration cards in the Budget,” she said.
Ration cardholders have been getting 10 kgs cereals per person per month since April 2020 (5 kg under NFSA at a subsidized price and 5 kg free under PMGKAY) but with the discontinuation of PMGKAY from January 1, 2023, the ration entitlement of people is halved.
They are now entitled to only 5 kgs ration per person per month (normal NFSA entitlement) instead of the current 10 kgs ration per person (NFSA+PMGKAY).
“The new PMGKAY is just the NFSA quantity of benefits but for free, instead of Rs. 3 per kg for rice and Rs. 2 per kg for wheat, resulting in a saving of only Rs. 10-15 per month per person while on the other losing out on 5kgs of cereals, worth over Rs. 100,” activist Dipa Sinha said.
Talking about women in the Budget, General Secretary of National Federation of Indian Women Annie Raja said women and children will be among those worst affected and poor outcomes for health and nutrition which impacts their growth, education and economic productivity.
“The Government was very good at coming up with names and acronyms for new schemes but was giving very little in real terms. Women and children of the country have once again been ignored even when they have been most affected by the pandemic and the continued economic severity,” she said.
“The central government’s budgets for Mid-day meals and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) schemes have been steadily declining, in real terms. Along with this, social security pensions, Samarthya (including maternity entitlement schemes), LPG subsidies and various schemes related to agriculture see reductions in real terms,” she added. PTI AO AO TIR TIR
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