By Bizodisha, Bureau, Bhubaneswar, January 19, 2016: Experts, people’s representatives, leaders of civil societies and people from various other walks of life on Tuesday sought adequate allocation in the forthcoming budget for key social areas such as health and family welfare, water sanitation, school and mass education, pre-school education, women, ST and SC development and livelihood and agriculture.

Participating in a pre-budget consultation programme on “People’s Priorities in State Budget 2016-17” here, they lamented that there had been no hike in budgetary allocation for social sector.

Pre-school education, one of the key components of Integrated Child Development Programme (ICDS) programme was allocated Rs 17 crore in 2014-15. This remained unchanged in the Budget 2015-16. The experts said it should be raised to at least Rs 35 crore as per the revised guideline of ICDS.

As regards the budget for elementary education, the participants said it increased many folds during last few years. However, the enrollment in schools has gone down.

In 2010-11, the budget allocation for elementary education was Rs 2901.74 crore. It was increased to Rs 7011.41 crore in 2015-16 Budget Estimate (BE). On the contrary, the enrolment in the government schools has been decreasing since last three years. The quality of education in the state is also facing a lot challenges. As per the ASER report 2014, 48 per cent of the Class V students cannot read Class II Level text, 53 per cent of the children cannot do subtraction, 64 per cent of Class VII student cannot do division and 60 per cent of class VII student cannot read English sentence.

The participants argued for increased allocation for teacher’s training, extracurricular activities in the schools, good class room environment and transaction to ensure quality of education in elementary level. Although the state school and mass education fetch higher share of state budget (11.85 per cent) but as percentage of the GSDP it is only 2.88 per cent which should be 6 per cent of the GSDP recommended by the Kothari Commission.

Stating that around 40 per cent of the total population of Odisha comprised by scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC-17.13 per cent and ST-22.85 per cent), the participants said for last four decades a specific budget allocation was being earmarked by the state as Scheduled Caste Sub Plan and Tribal Sub Plan (SCSP & TSP) for the planned development of these two communities. The house, therefore, suggested a planned statement to be linked with the heads of allocation for proper utilization of SCSP and TSP.

As many as 51 infant deaths are recorded per 1000 live births in Odisha. During 2010-12, Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) of Odisha was 235 which stood higher as compared to other bigger states in the country.

The issues affecting the IMR and MMR are even more acute amongst the rural poor particularly in inaccessible and tribal dominated pockets in the state. The major components affecting the IMR and MMR status in state are – unavailability of gynecologists and pediatricians in the rural areas particularly in the CHCs, shortage of lab technicians and nursing staffs in the CHCs and PHCs, the participants said.

Some of the prominent participants included Professor Dr Tapas Sen of Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, former Odisha finance minister Panchanan Kanungo, former Odisha information commissioner Jagadanand, retired IAS officer Arabinda Behera, professor Bhagabat Patra and senior officers of state finance ministry – A.K. Mishra, D.K. Jena and Ashwini Mishra.