A Budget that fails to address the hunger pandemic  

Context: While the country continues to grapple with the health and economic crisis as a result of COVID-19, widespread hunger and food insecurity is a silent emergency that has not been getting sufficient attention. Unfortunately, the Union Budget also does not include any significant measures to address this.

Current Status:

• The partial National Family Health Survey-5 results released recently showed that child malnutrition levels in 2019 were higher than in 2016 in most States.
• The fall in incomes witnessed by most poor and working-class households in the last one year would have made this situation even worse.
• Recent field surveys conducted by Hunger Watch and the Azim Premji University between October 2020 and December 2020 found that for two-thirds of the respondents, food intake was still not back to pre-lockdown levels.
• Malnutrition has multiple determinants with access to food, health and care being immediate.

No greater allocation:

• The 2020-21 revised estimates for anganwadi services is Rs. 17,252.3 crore, compared to a Budget estimate of Rs. 20,532.4 crore, which was itself less than the projected demand of Rs. 24,810 crore.
• This shows that the anganwadi services have been badly affected by the closure of anganwadi centres.
• It is not clear whether the revised estimates reflect a true picture, because data of the Controller General of Accounts show that the expenditure of the entire Ministry of Women and Child Development (which implements anganwadi services among other things) up to December 2020 was only Rs. 14,607.1 crore (49% of Budget estimates).
• In the current Budget, different schemes have been clubbed together and anganwadi services are now part of something called ‘Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0’ which has an allocated budget of Rs. 20,105 crore.
• The national nutrition mission (Poshan) for 2020-21 being only Rs. 600 crore compared to a Budget estimate of Rs. 3,700 crore.
• For maternity benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (a cash transfer of Rs. 5,000 for pregnant women), the revised estimate is Rs. 1,300 core compared to the Budget estimate of Rs. 2,500 crore.
• This scheme is now part of Samarthya, along with other schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Mahila Shakti Kendra.

Food subsidy

• While the food subsidy seems to have increased by more than three times, it must be understood that this does not reflect higher distribution of subsidised grains.
• This only reflects a correction in the Budget books, where the government is paying back Food Corporation of India (FCI) arrears rather than forcing the FCI to take loans.
• The total FCI debt as on December 31, 2020 was 3.7 lakh crore (accumulated over the last few years because adequate amounts were not allocated for food subsidy), and the additional amount being shown in the revised estimate over last year’s Budget estimate is Rs. 3.1 lakh crore which matches the debt that FCI has with the National Social Security Fund.
• In fact, it is shocking that even the health budget has not been increased, with the allocation for health this year being lower than the revised estimate for 2020-21 (Rs. 74,602 crore versus Rs. 82,445 crore).
• The only increase here seems to be in the allocation for the COVID-19 vaccine which is a one-time expenditure and does not contribute to strengthening the health system.

Missing the mark

• Overall, from the point of view of addressing hunger or providing a demand stimulus, this Budget misses the mark. What we have been presented with in a year of economic slowdown and growing inequality is a stingy budget that fails to ensure the ‘bare necessities’ for all.
• Nutrition schemes, which have been suffering from poor budgetary support for many years now, do not see greater allocations despite the increasing prevalence of malnutrition.

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/a-budget-that-fails-to-address-the-hunger-pandemic/article33722718.ece