BENGALURU: For the first time in the history of the state Yediyurappa's government presented a "child budget", making it a special feature of the budget. While there were mixed responses from the experts about this, many said that it is nothing but a cocktail of budget allocated towards children in all areas and its just "old wine in new bottle".
Several others appreciated the fact that all the policies and programmes for the development of children below the age of 18 are consolidated and presented in this budget and as many as 279 programmes involving Rs 36,340 crores, which is almost 15.28 per cent of the total volume of the Budget has been earmarked.
This looks like an idea mooted by the centre as the Arunachal Pradesh's Dy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, who also holds the Finance portfolio, has presented a separate Child Budget, for the first time in the state.
Education experts said that this was a good move if monitored well and that it can help the Government to take stock on the investment with respect to the child’s needs of the state. It can be an important policy analysis tool and identify glaring gaps in resource investment.
Child-specific expenditure include programmes or interventions that are 100 per cent child-related and that exclusively target children in the age group of 0-18 years.
This includes finance for early childhood care and education, primary and secondary education, child health and other social welfare schemes targeting children of different vulnerable communities.