Budget 2023: Malnutrition crisis to get worse as funds for women and children get outstripped by inflation

These low budgets have serious implications. In a context, where child malnutrition rates are high, the supplementary nutrition provided through anganwadis is a very critical input. (Representative image)

The Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry implements some of the most important programmes in the country addressing the needs of women and young children, yet has always been under-resourced and overlooked. Budget 2023-23, continues this trend. The total budget allocation for the Ministry is Rs 25,449 crore, which is about one-tenth the budget for ‘roads and bridges’ (Rs 2.45 lakh crore).

The anganwadi services, which is the main programme that addresses the nutrition and pre-school needs of nearly 15 crore children in the age group under six years as well as pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls, comes under this Ministry. The anganwadi services along with the Poshan Abhiyan (national nutrition mission) and the scheme for adolescent girls is now part of a new package of schemes introduced in 2021, called Saksham Anganwadi. Although the Saksham Anganwadi takes up 80 per cent of the Ministry’s budget, these schemes are also hugely under-resourced.

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Stagnant Allocations

The allocations for these schemes have remained almost the same in nominal terms and have declined in real terms, for at least five years if not more. Even this year, the allocation for Saksham Anganwadi at Rs 20,254 crore is one per cent higher than the revised estimates for FY 2022-23 at Rs 20,263 crore, while the inflation rate for the year is about 6.8 per cent.

These low budgets have serious implications. In a context, where child malnutrition rates are high, the supplementary nutrition provided through anganwadis is a very critical input. The per child per day cost norms for this nutrition has not changed since 2018. Further, along with inflation indexing, the norms themselves need an upward revision if the children are to be provided something substantial such as eggs and fruits.

Currently, the norm is as low as Rs 8 per child per day! Further, the effective provision of anganwadi services such as pre-school education for the three to six year olds, nutrition and health counselling, and growth monitoring are all human resource intensive and are delivered through the anganwadi workers. The anganwadi workers are still considered voluntary workers, for whom the central government makes a contribution of Rs. 4,500 per month – unchanged since 2018.

Why Allocations Matter

The quality of services provided is further affected by the fact that around 30 per cent of the positions of supervisory staff at the block level are also lying vacant. If the Saksham Anganwadi is to make a serious dent in improving learning outcomes of children (pre-school is foundational and has long lasting impacts) as well as nutritional indicators (35 per cent of children in our country are undernourished), along with many design and implementation reforms what it really needs is a boost in spending. Budget 2023 disappoints on this front.

The overall budget of the Ministry has also increased by only 6 per cent compared to the revised estimates of last year – again something not enough to even account for inflation. Other schemes of the Ministry also therefore suffer. For instance, the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana which gives Rs 5,000 to pregnant women as a maternity entitlement has seen a declining number of beneficiaries over the past few years. The amount of benefit also which was set in 2013 in the National Food Security Act, has not been revised since.

GDP Outpaces Gender Budget

Despite the Finance Minister’s speech emphasising women’s empowerment and inclusive development as a priority the budget allocations do not show this commitment. The overall gender budget has reduced from 0.8 per cent of GDP to 0.74 per cent of GDP, with only about 5 per cent of the total expenditure being allocated to the gender budget.

The gender budget not only includes spending on schemes that directly address women but also accounts for their share in some general spending – for instance, Rs. 25,000 crore under MGNREGA is part of the gender budget. The children’s budget share is as low as 0.33 per cent of the GDP and a little over 2 per cent of the total central government expenditure. Globally, India spends amongst the least on social protection, education and health as a proportion of GDP.

Spending on women and children is not a charity, rather an investment into building human capital which lays the foundations for higher productivity and sustainable growth. It also essential to meet the sustainable development goals (SDGs) that India has signed up to. The country cannot afford to continue neglecting women and children.

Dipa Sinha teaches Economics at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.