Rs 34,400 crore for education

BUDGET & THE ECONOMY

HEALTH & EDUCATION: Allocation for education and health sectors has been increased by 20 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has allocated Rs 34,400 crore for education in the 2008-09 Budget, a 20 per cent increase over Rs 28,674 crore in 2007-08, while the health sector received an allocation of Rs 16,534 crore, 15 per cent more than the 2007-08 figure of Rs 12,050 crore.

However, figures reveal that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) was allocated Rs 6,483 crore in last year's Budget for higher education, but spent only Rs 3,262 crore, returning as much as Rs 3,221 crore.

The Department of Higher Education had seen a major hike in allocation last year owing to the 54 per cent expansion for implementation of quotas for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in central higher educational institutions.

With the Supreme Court staying the implementation of the OBC quota last year, the ministry was not able to utilise the allocation. A dean of IIT-Roorkee told Business Standard that the institute had not received any money under the OBC expansion head.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship programme of the HRD ministry, received an allocation of Rs 13,100 crore which would be spent in enhancing retention, a shift from the earlier focus on access and infrastructure.

With an allocation of Rs 8,000 crore for the Mid-Day Meal Scheme this year, all children up to Class VIII in government-run schools will be entitled to a free meal.

Last year, the scheme was announced for 3,479 educationally backward blocks of the country. The new scheme would thus benefit an additional 25 million children, taking the total coverage to about 140 million children.

Secondary education also received a major boost for 2008-09 as the sector has received an all-time high allocation of Rs 4,554 crore.

The finance minister also announced that a Model School Programme, with an aim of establishing 6,000 high quality model schools, will be started in 2008-09 for which Rs 65 crore has been allocated. Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in 20 districts having a large concentration of SCs and STs have been allotted Rs 130 crore.

The National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship facilitating students to pursue education from upper primary till higher secondary has been provided with Rs 750 crore, similar to last year.

In the health sector, ICDS (anganwadi scheme), which provides nutritional support for children below six years, and pregnant and lactating mothers, has received an allocation of Rs 6,300 crore, against Rs 5,293 crore for 2007-08.

Chidambaram announced that the remuneration of Anganwadi workers will be increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per month, while the remuneration for Anganwadi helpers will go up from Rs 500 to Rs 750 per month. Over 1.8 million Anganwadi workers and helpers are expected to benefit from the increase.