The present government came to power in 2014 with the promises in terms of reducing corruption and generating meaningful employment opportunities. Other important promises were part of BJP election manifesto such as tackling inflation (especially food inflation), reducing inequality, and pushing the economy on a higher growth path. National Democratic Alliance government led by BJP presented its last full budget on February 1. Union Budget 2018-19 was presented in the context of economic slowdown, rural distress and rising employment in the country. The two reforms implemented by this government, namely ‘demonetisation’ and Goods and Services Tax have been highly disruptive for the growth of economy. In that context, many people had expected that this year’s budget will try to address the aforesaid problems.
Union Budget 2018-19 made several announcements for the sectors like agriculture and rural infrastructure development, generating employment opportunities in the formal sector, providing quality healthcare for underprivileged and senior citizens and improving the provisions for education. But these announcements are not backed by adequate budgetary provisions and framework for implementation. The total public spending has also shown the declining trend for the last few years.
Table 1 shows that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways continues to be accorded high priority in the Union Budget as the expenditure / budget for the ministry has increased from Rs. 33048 Crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 71000 Crores in 2018-19 (BE). Ministry of Rural Development’s total expenditure / budget has increased from Rs. 69817 Crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 114915 Crore in 2018-19 (BE); but the overall allocation for the ministry has stagnated over the last two Union Budgets. The 17 selected ministries are part of social sector; the total allocation for these as compared to the total Union Budget accounts for 26% in 2017-18 (RE) as also in 2018-19 (BE). It shows the low priority of budget towards social sector that has led low public provision for marginalised communities such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women, children and religious minorities. In regard to religious minorities, “Government is committed to “Empowerment and not Appeasement”, and my Government is making intensive efforts for economic, social and educational empowerment of the minorities.” (President’s Address to the joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament, 29 January, 2018)
Table 1: Budgets of Select Union Government Ministries
(Figures in Rs. Crore)
However, NITI Aayog report, says that “Muslims constitute the largest religious minority and lag behind others in terms of economic, health and education parameters. The participation of Muslims in salaried jobs is also low. Muslim workers are largely concentrated in the informal sector which is characterised by low wages, poor working conditions and little or no social security” (the Three -Year Action Agenda: Niti Aayog, 2017). In terms of policy priority for minorities, 11th Plan and 12th Plan through their core approach of ‘faster and inclusive growth’ adopted a four-pronged strategy of development for minorities – educational and economic empowerment, access to public services, strengthening of minority institutions and area development programme. In 2006, the Cabinet gave its approval for revamping the Prime Minister’s New 15-Point Programme for welfare of minorities (15 PP). It had covered 15 different areas for economic and social development. However, the 15 PP does not cover key Union Government ministries like agriculture, commerce and industry, trade and small and medium enterprises which are critical for development of minorities.
The Cabinet decided that 15 per cent of the funds and physical targets may be earmarked wherever possible in relevant ongoing general sector schemes/ programmes of Department and Ministries in the Union Government, for the nationally declared minorities. There were two important commitments made under 15 PP; one by the ‘department of personnel and training’ with a promise to ensure 15 per cent share in public employment; and ‘department of financial services’ with targets to disburse 15 per cent of the annual ‘priority sector lending’ (PSL) to favour minorities. In addition to 15 PP, a new area development strategy, namely Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP) was designed in 2008 to address the shortfalls in basic amenities, education and employment in the minority concentrated areas. All the schemes run by Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) and Department of School Education and Literacy are also part of 15PP which are meant completely for the development of minorities.
Looking at the total budgetary allocation for minorities in the Union Budget, it may be noted that only 0.49 per cent of the total Union Budget 2016-17 has been earmarked for the development of minorities. The religious minorities constitute 21 per cent of total population as per census 2011. The ministries and department allocated fund for minorities include 15 PP (100 per cent allocation), MSDP and 15 PP (15 per cent allocation). The total expenditure reported for minorities by the Centre through 15 PP and MSDP has shown declining trend in the total expenditure since 2012-13.
Budgetary Allocation and Fund Utilisation by MoMA
Although the budget allocation for MoMA has increased by 12 per cent in this budget, the fund utilisation of MoMA has declined to 74 per cent from 97.8 per cent in 2015-16. It has affected the implementation of MSDP and scholarship programmes. Under MSDP, there has been a very low achievement in physical outcomes across the components. The components like Degree College, School Building, lab equipment, teaching aid, free cycle and income generating infrastructure have poor completion rate against the unit sanctioned. It also shows that the water supply, housing and income generating infrastructure have poor completion rate against the unit sanctioned under the MSDP project and many activities under the MSDP have not yet started.
The MoMA being a nodal ministry is currently running many schemes related to education empowerment, skill development and livelihood, special programmes for minorities and area development programmes like MSDP. The budgetary allocation has increased marginally in Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP) and some of the scholarship programmes like Merit Cum Means Scholarships, Post Matric Scholarships, Free Coaching, Maulana Azad Education Foundation, Skill Development Initiatives (Rs.250 crore) and Nai Manzil (Rs.140 crore). Pre Matric Scholarships and NMDFC have shown the decline in the budgetary allocation in 2018-19 (Table 2).
Problems in Implementation
Many research studies including NITI Aayog Action Agenda (2017) found that there are several gaps in public policies meant for minorities such as inadequate budgets, inappropriate policy design, and weak implementation that come in the way of the poor receiving the desired level of development benefits.
Looking at the implementation of key policy initiatives after the Sachar Committee Report (2005), like setting up of a National Data Bank, an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) and constructing a Diversity Index aimed at promoting inclusion of excluded communities including Muslims in public institutions. In this regard, although the reports of working groups on setting up of an EOC and constructing a Diversity Index have been submitted, no headway has been made in terms of actual implementation so far.
The data on status of recruitment of minorities (in Central Government, public sector undertakings, banks, etc.) collated by MoMA shows that percentage of minorities recruited in the total recruitment reported to be 6.24, 6.91, 7.89, 8.56 and 7.5 per cent from 2011-12 to 2015-16. It clearly reflects that after ten years of implementation of 15 PP, minorities have not been given fair share in recruitment. Further, there is no disaggregated data on religious minorities made available on recruitment, especially in the present reporting format provided by MoMA. However, the government said that employment opportunities have been provided for the youth belonging to Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Jain communities through programmes, such as ‘Seekho Aur Kamao’, ‘Usttad’, ‘Garib Nawaz Kaushal Vikas Yojana’, ‘Nai Roshni’, etc. More than 45 lakh students have also benefitted from scholarships, fellowships, skill development and coaching schemes during the last one year. (President’s Address to the joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament, 29 January, 2018)
As the data provided by MoMA on financial inclusion of minorities, the percentage of Priority Sector Lending (PSL) going to minorities has shown steady increase from 10.6 per cent in 2007-08 to 15.40 per cent as on 31.03.2017. Also, the community-wise flow under PSL during 2016-17 (31.03.2017) is as under: Muslims (45.48%), Sikhs (23.90%), Christians (20.24%), Jains (6.32%), Buddhists (2.39%) and Parsis (1.67%). The data clearly shows that Muslims constitute 72 per cent among the total minority population, but only account for 45 per cent of the total credit flow. Whereas, several field based studies have found that the access to credit by Muslims is even negligible due to many reasons in rural areas.
Further, the policy gaps and other social, communal and discriminatory factors may be mutually exclusive in preventing Muslims from accessing the desired level of development benefits. To address the issues of communal violence in the country as per the guideline of 15 PP, a Bill titled “The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005” was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2005 but was not passed. Subsequently, a new Bill was proposed for the discussion in the Rajya Sabha in 2014. However, the introduction of the bill was deferred and has not taken up so far for further discussion by the current government.
[The writer works with CBGA and is Advisor to Institute of Policy Studies and Advocacy, New Delhi; [email protected]]