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K. Rahman Khan, Union Minister for
Minority Affairs, addressing the closing plenary session of
the National Convention |
New Delhi: A Charter of Demands from
the forthcoming Union Budget 2013-14 was released at the end of
the two-day National Convention on Union Budget 2013-14 which
concluded here at the India Islamic Cultural Centre on Thursday.
The process of Regional Conventions on Union Budget across five
regions in the country, i.e. north & central, south, east, west
and north east culminated in the National Convention here wherein
representatives of around 150 Civil Societies from about 20 states
in India together with representatives of associations/federations
of frontline service providers in social sector schemes, members
of PRIs and a number of academicians came together to discuss the
regional inputs and collectively prepared the Charter of Demands
from the forthcoming Union Budget.
Now, the Charter of Demands from the forthcoming Union Budget
prepared in the National Convention will be shared with the Union
Ministry of Finance, other Union Ministries that deal with social
sectors and disadvantaged sections of population and a number of
other key stakeholders.
K. Rahman Khan, Union Minister for Minority Affairs, addressing
the closing plenary session of the National Convention assured the
assemblage that he would forward the Charter of Demands to P.
Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, for necessary action. He
lauded the efforts of CBGA and PBI for the initiative taken in
this regard.
Rahman Khan revealed that the Government is in the process of
re-structuring the Multi-Sectoral Development Programme, (MSDP),
so that it becomes more effective and improves the quality of life
of the people and reduces the imbalances in the Minority
Concentration Districts, (MCDs).
Prof. Abhijit Sen, Member of Planning Commission of India,
speaking on the occasion informed that the 12th Five Year Plan, (FYP),
which has been uploaded on the Planning Commission website is in
three volumes. The basic core of the proposed 12th FYP remains by
and large growth-oriented. The broad vision and aspirations which
the Twelfth Plan seeks to fulfil are reflected in the subtitle:
‘Faster, Sustainable, and More Inclusive Growth’. The simultaneous
achievement of each of these elements is critical for the success
of the Plan, he asserted.
Prof. Sen said that the policy challenge in the Twelfth Plan is
two-fold. The immediate challenge is to reverse the observed
deceleration in growth by reviving investment as quickly as
possible. This calls for urgent action to tackle implementation
constraints in infrastructure which are holding up large projects,
combined with action to deal with tax related issues which have
created uncertainty in the investment climate. From a longer term
perspective, the Plan must put in place policies that can leverage
the many strengths of the economy to bring it back to its 2
Twelfth Five Year Plan real growth potential. This will take time
but the aim should be to get back to 9 per cent growth by the end
of the Twelfth Plan period, he added.
The National convention in New Delhi was organised by People’s
Budget Initiative, (PBI), under the aegis of the Centre for Budget
and Governance Accountability, (CBGA).
The closing session was moderated by Dr. Praveen Jha, Associate
Professor in Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Earlier, after the fourth session there were Group Discussions on
Charter of Demands from the Union Budget 2013-14 which. It was
followed by fifth session on presentation of Charter of Demands
for Union Budget 2013-14 emerging from People’s Budget Initiative
after group discussions. The moderator was Ms Hilda Grace,
president of Centre for Rural Studies and Development.
In the Charter of Demands the demands have been made under the 14
heads which include: Education; Health; Rural Development &
Panchayati Raj Institutions; Agriculture; Food Security; Dalits;
Muslims; Adivasis; Women; Children; Persons with Disabilities;
Unorganised Workers; Responsiveness to Climate Change and
Taxation.
The demands made under some of the heads are as follows:-
Education
1. The Union Government should take adequate measures towards
increasing the country’s total budgetary spending education and
begin by significantly stepping up outlays towards education in
the Union Budget 2013-14;
2. Given the State Budgets account for a
large share of government spending on education, the Union
Government must apportion more untied budget to the State
governments for extending and strengthening the public education
system;
3. At the elementary level, it is crucial to ensure that
financial provisions for implementing the Right to Education (RTE)
Act 2009, are adequate. While the RTE rules have been notified by
all states now, the requisite financial memorandum has not been
provided by all. The Union Government would need to step up its
allocations towards meeting the present shortfall.;
4. The
government needs to significantly increase its outlays for Sarva
Siksha Abhiyan, (SSA), for universalising quality of elementary
education;
5. An Education Commission must be constituted at the
earliest in order to ensure that there are sound institutional
mechanisms that the need for bringing radical reforms in the
education sector; etc.
Health
A long-pending recommendation that has remained unaddressed is the
need for stepping up total public spending on health (by Centre
and States combined) to 3 per cent of GDP, the present government
spending on health is mere 1 per cent of GDP; Separate allocation
should be made in the budget for procurement of essential drugs to
ensure that there is universal access to medicines. Free referral
services for all types of emergencies must also be budgeted for;
With growing urban poor population, it becomes imperative that the
policy focus (and concomitantly the budgets) be stepped up for
developing and strengthening present structures of the urban
healthcare systems; etc.
Muslims
Meanwhile, the Charter of Demands says that among the religious
minority communities in the country, Muslims register the most
acute forms of development deficit owing to the historical
discrimination since pre-Independence times. The Sachar Committee
Report recommended several measures in this regard and a close
scrutiny reveals that many of these well-intentioned
recommendations have not yet been implemented. The findings reveal
that after five years of policy initiatives, concerns persists
relating to policy provisions, budgetary outlays, utilisations of
funds, and fine tuning the design of government programmes
specific to the development of Muslims. Only miniscule proportions
of benefits of the initiatives have gone to Muslims owing to
continued discrimination, inadequate targetting, electoral
considerations and weak implementing apparatus. A major share of
the benefits is diverted to non-Muslims and non-minority areas due
to ambiguity in policy provisions and unclear guidelines. The
Union Budget 2013-14 must prioritise the implementation of many of
these recommendations by allocating significant resources towards
development of the Muslims. The 15-point demands put forward for
Muslims are as follows:-
1. Budget of 58, 000 cr. should be allocated as demanded by MoMA,
(Ministry of Minority Affairs), under 12th FYP;
2. Budget
allocated for Minorities schemes should be made non-lapsable from
2013-14;
3. Allocation for establishment of National Data Bank for
Minorities should be done 2013-14 onward;
4. Budget allocated for MCD under 15 points Programmes should not be used for general
purpose. It must be minorities targeted;
5. Creation of special
fund to compensate the victims of communal violence;
6.
Facilitation centre to raise the awareness among minorities about
the schemes related with them;
7. Focusing on promoting
entrepreneurship development, Khadi and carpet weavers are not
included in debt relief measures like those available for the
handloom sector. This aspect needs to be attended to in the coming
Union Budget. Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
should adopt guidelines to promote economic opportunities for
Muslims;
8. Focusing on access to credit, the RBI guidelines to
all banks to apportion 15% of credit to Muslims is not being
adhered to; Union Budget 2013-14 must make specific
recommendations in this regard;
9. Specific to education, the
process of applying for scholarships by Muslim students is too
cumbersome; this needs to be made easier. A related demand is to
increase the unit costs of scholarship and other entitlements and
aligning these with the norms in Kendriya Vidyalayas / Navodaya
Vidyalayas. Suitable incentive mechanisms must also be devised in
Union Budget 2013-14 to address the problem of high dropout ratio
among Muslim students;
10. Specific to health, there is a need to
prioritise setting up hospitals in minority concentrated
districts; the outlays towards Multi Sectoral development
Programme (MSDP) must be increased in this regard. Within health,
greater attention needs to be paid to child health;
11. Muslim
women remain doubly disadvantaged and their development needs to
be prioritised in the budget outlays. Stepping up of the budget
for short stay homes would address the problem of destitute Muslim
women. Specific attention also needs to be paid to Muslim women
accessing education and health services;
12. Two critical
mechanisms – the MSDP and the PM’s New 15-Point Programme –
continue to be the most important vehicles with regard to the
overall development of Muslims. Greater attention needs to be paid
to the prioritisation of these two interventions in the coming
Union Budget. While stepping up outlays is one of the important
ways of addressing the problem, it is also critical to ensure that
the schemes are implemented more effectively and the services are
delivered to the intended beneficiaries;
13. The MSDP and the PM’s
New 15-Point Programme should adopt a village / hamlet level
approach, instead of the prevailing district level approach, in
identification of potential beneficiaries;
14. Also, the PM’s New
15-Point Programme should not be limited only to the ministries
dealing with basic / essential services, rather it should be
extended to all those sectors that are critical for long term
development of Muslims
and 15. There is a need to devolve greater
financial powers to the National Minorities Development and
Finance Corporation in order to ensure that the policy
interventions being planned for the minorities and more
specifically the Muslims are relevant and in keeping with the
concerns of the intended beneficiaries.
It may be pointed here that the five Regional Conventions on the
Union Budget 2013-14 were organised – in Chennai (for Southern
Region) on November 9th, Ranchi (for Eastern Region) on November
17th, Guwahati (for North Eastern Region) and Lucknow (for
Northern and Central Region) on November 21st and in Pune (for
Western Region) on November 30th. In order to consolidate the
expectations from Union Budget 2013-14 emerging from all the
Regional Conventions, People’s Budget Initiative organised the
National Convention in New Delhi on December 5 and 6.
(pervezbari@eth.net)
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