Budget disregard for the vulnerable: some reflections

Amid the onslaught of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, commoners are reeling under threatening economic conditions.

- Dr. Rajiv Khosla & Dr Manjit Sharma

Much was being expected from the Budget 2023. It was expected that it will try to provide respite from the tough economic conditions. However, this Amritkal budget seems to have served only the privileged sections of the society.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs received 38% lesser allocation in this Budget (₹ 3097 crore) vis-à-vis Budget 2022 (₹ 5020 crore). Considerable reduction has been made in educational empowerment of the minorities which has factually reduced from ₹ 2515 crore (allocated in Budget 2022) to ₹1689 crore this year. If we further dive deep, it becomes evident that pre-matric scholarship for minorities has received only ₹433 crore this year which was budgeted at ̀ 1425 crore last year. Already, this age group is under immense psychological pressure since the break out of Covid-19 and now the dropout rate may go boundless. No doubt, funds for post-matric scholarship have been increased from ₹ 515 to ₹1065 crore, yet in the absence of students promoted from lower classes to senior classes, the need for post-matric scholarship allocation in future may decrease. It is pertinent to mention here that in case of under graduate and post-graduate minority students who undertake scholarship for professional and technical courses, a catastrophic reduction has been made in the allocation - from ₹365 crore in 2022-23 to ₹44 crore in 2023-24. Not only the decrease in allocation has taken place in the context of education for the minorities, rather in Pardhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakarm too, that aims at developing socio-economic infrastructure and basic amenities for the identified minority concentration area for improving their quality of life.