Anyone looking at this year’s Budget on its own would think the pandemic had never happened.
A Budget that comes on the heels of a disaster of unparalleled proportions for India’s working class should have be seen as a time to make a real effort to correct systemic wrongs, and make use of whatever means might be available to provide extra support to the most marginalised.
But the Budget, perhaps as expected from a pro-corporate government, is a big disappointment. In fact, given the kind of Budget this has turned out to be for the social sector, perhaps some strong legal measure is needed, to put constitutional values into economic policy, in a way that the basics can never be undermined.
It is therefore perhaps time we had a Human Responsibility and Budget Management (HRBM) Act, in which our constitutional obligations to ordinary citizens is the overarching objective, and fiscal responsibility is only a subset. The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act is leading to extreme perversions in our outlook, in a way that economic and democratic governance becomes a product of fiscal priorities, rather than fiscal priority being determined by foundational principles of equity, justice, and the greater common good.
Some of the most important areas of social sector neglect that is evident in this budget are 1) employment and MGNREGA, 2) food security including NFSA, mid-day meal and anganwadis, 3) public health, 4) education and 5) pensions. In many of these cases, the finance minister claims an increase in allocation, whereas it is merely a matter of sleight of language and accounting without any real increase. Let’s take a brief look at each of these areas.
MGNREGA
The allocation of Rs 73,000 crore for MGNREGA represents a massive budget cut of Rs 38,500 crore (when compared to FY21, in an entitlement that saved millions of households from starvation and rank unemployment). MGNREGA is a demand-based legal entitlement, and can in any case not be bound by a budget estimate.
Also read: Budget 2021 Appears to Be a Return to Business as Usual
There is still massive demand for work under MGNREGA in rural areas and unemployment figures show that there continues to be huge distress in the unorganised sector. However, in the absence of adequate allocations there is an artificial repression of demand. The extent of this suppression is clear from the enormous difference between the Rs 1,11,500 crore revised estimate (RE) this year, and the Rs 73,000 crore amount allocated for this Budget. MGNREGA has saved workers, particularly women, from destitution. A revival of the economy cannot take place without the minimum income security that MGNREGA provides to every rural household.
Food security – PDS, mid-day meals and anganwadis
The allocations for the public distribution system (PDS) have taken the biggest cut from Rs 3.4 lakh crore spent this year (FY21) to Rs 2 lakh crore estimated for the coming financial year. Looking at the budget estimates for this year and last, it seems as if the allocation has moved up from Rs 75,000 crore to Rs 2 lakh crore. However, this is an accounting measure. The remaining Rs 1,25,000 crore is in fact a loan that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) had to take so that it would show as an FCI deficit rather than a budget deficit.
In fact, nothing could make our lack of concern for the poor clearer than our perverted accounting on foodgrains, and the distress and social tension these neoliberal policies are engendering. Even though we have foodgrain stocks up to five times the required buffer, we are not willing to distribute it so that we can show it as a fiscal asset. Our food production could have been the foundation on which we could ensure the health and participation of all Indian citizens in the economy and the health of the nation. We already have a horrendous inhuman anomaly of government holding huge stocks of food grain, while food insecurity and hunger stalk the land. And we have the explosive situation of some of our best producing farmers on the protest of their lives to try and have their production procured at a decent price.
If the budget could have been seen as a means of making sure that production and consumption are matched in an equitable manner, we could have dealt with the farmers demand for procurement at MSP and the nutrition requirements of all our people. Matching these two fundamental needs of producers and consumers is what the Union Budget should be doing. This budget actually could help sort out the farmers demands, and the food needs of the Indian people in one bold imaginative stroke.
At a time when the government is struggling to find resources and money to run development programmes and meet other budgetary obligations, there was a need to innovatively use resources that the government has access to.
If the other 21 crops were also to be procured at MSP in reasonable quantities as promised by the government, the PDS system could universalise foodgrain, and provide oil and pulses as well. Similarly, we could have a really effective mid-day meal programme in our schools and a well-supplied pre-school nutrition programme for children, pregnant and lactating women.
Pensions
Similarly, the vast number of elderly, widows and disabled persons who receive no pension because it is restricted to BPL families means that in the year of COVID-19, lakhs of vulnerable people are going hungry. They have nothing to rely on except rations and pensions. The budget for pensions has remained static for a decade, with the shameful social security pensions of Rs 200 per month (Rs 7 per day) continuing. Clearly the government does not care about how even those who receive pensions will survive in these times.
Education and health
The health budget that should have gone up dramatically to reach at least the level of 3% of GDP has also taken a cut from the Rs 82,445 crore spent this year, to a budget estimate of Rs 74,600 crore for the coming financial year. The coronavirus period brought attention to public health (or the lack of it). This was the time to universalise health care. But that cannot be done without budgetary allocations several times the current amount. It is clear that those who need support from the public health system are going to be left to the vagaries of the market forces.
Also read: Budget 2021 Utterly Disregards the Education Catastrophe Inflicted by COVID-19
The government’s faith in and support for market forces and the private sector is equally evident from its education budget. The longstanding demand for 6% of GDP needed for health is not even in consideration. One year has been lost for most students in India due to the pandemic. A special effort was required to ensure that students, particularly girl students, return to the formal education system. This would have required additional attention and resources so that the poorest are proactively supported in this endeavour. India’s lack of prioritisation of public education has always been counterproductive to its economy and society. The current lack of attention is likely to be catastrophic.
A need for a budgetary policy
Given the control that the corporate sector clearly exercises over the democratic and budgetary process, it seems imperative that those who deserve an equal share will have to fight about the norms on the basis of which budgets are prepared.
The constitution and its values are the foundation on which India is based, the policies are being hijacked by an affluent and elite group only concerned about itself. Budgets in these times cannot be seen as annual exercises. They are part of a neoliberal framework, and like the farmers have been doing, the workers will also have to assert themselves if they are going to get the basic allocations they deserve as equal citizens of India.
Nikhil Dey is a social activist working with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in Rajasthan.
