Budget 2007-08 and Children: A First Glance

Of every 100 rupees in the Union Budget 2007-08, only 4 rupees and 84 paise has been promised by the Finance Minister for children. Within the child budget, the share of education and child protection has indeed increased when compared to child health and child development. The government had earlier promised that it would henceforth undertake Child Budgeting. But there is no sign of that in the current budget. The promised allocation of Rs. 4761 crore is not sufficient to meet even the cost of present number of operational Anganwadi centres. The much-awaited Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) has been announced.[Prepared by Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, Bharti Ali, Abhijeet Nirmal and Madhumita Purkayastha.]