Budget for Children of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes

(STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs)

In our Country even to this date children are the most vulnerable group who get

the least priority when it comes to budget allocation and implementation of

programmes. The government has a set of priorities when looking at the

situation of children and the priorities get further differentiated when the

children in question are affiliated by birth to a particular caste, community or

tribe.

The Socially Disadvantaged group in the country includes the Scheduled Castes

(SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). In India these

groups have been historically disadvantaged and vulnerable than the other

groups. Special efforts are being made by the Government for the welfare and

development as they lag behind the rest of the society due to their social and

economic backwardness.

The Constitution of India has included various social, economic and political

provisions for the development of these groups. It also guarantees protection

from social injustice and all forms of exploitation, equality before law and enjoins

upon the State not to discriminate against any citizen on grounds of caste. The

constitution also states that untouchability is abolished and its practice in any

form is forbidden. The Constitution mandates that no citizen shall, on grounds of

caste or race, be subjected to any disability and restriction. It empowers the State

to make provisions for reservation in educational institutions, and in

appointments for posts in favour of SC’s, ST’s and OBC’s.

As part of the strategy to achieve inclusive development, the Government is

committed towards the economic and social empowerment and educational

upliftment of socially disadvantaged groups and marginalised sections of

society. The Constitution also provides special status to certain areas with high

population of STs in the north-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and

Tripura in terms of administrative and functional autonomy which comes under

the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

This paper is an attempt to look into the programmes that are implemented in

the country for the children of SC, ST and OBC community with reference to the

special status as conferred by the Constitution as well the provisions that are

being created time to time for development of children belonging to socially

disadvantaged group. It also looks into the allocations made under such schemes

under various ministries.

Methodology

Selection of Ministries and Schemes

The methodology followed was to read through the Ministry’s Detailed Demand

for Grants (DDG) publications and identify allocations made for children

belonging to SC, ST, and OBC community. After thoroughly going through the

DDGs, some ministries were identified that have allocation meant for the

children of SC, ST, and OBC community. All the allocation and expenditure data

for the study have been taken from the DDG’s, of the following ministries:

• Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)

• Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE)

• Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MTA)

The objective was three fold

• To collate the schemes for Children in the various relevant ministries

• To assess the allocations made for the Children under this specific subject

to assess whether such schemes are actually being implemented to secure

the rights of children belonging to the socially disadvantaged sections.

• To assess the utilisation of funds allocated for these programmes and thus

evaluate utilisation versus allocation (needs vs spending) to see if children

are getting their just share of the state’s resources.

Special Provisions for the Implementation of Schemes/

Programmes for SC, ST and OBC for

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE), is the nodal ministry

for implementation of schemes for the empowerment of the disadvantaged and

marginalised groups like SC and OBCs. Earlier schemes for the welfare of

scheduled tribes (STs) were also implemented through MSJE.

The MSJE implements Schedules Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) which is an umbrella

strategy to ensure flow of targeted financial and physical benefits from all the

general sectors of development for the benefit of Scheduled Castes. Under the

strategy, States/UTs are required to formulate and implement Special

Component Plan (SCP) for Scheduled Castes as part of their Annual Plans by

earmarking resources. At present 27 States/UTs having sizeable SC population

are implementing Schedules Caste Sub-Plan1. In 1999, the Tribal Development

Division was moved from MSJE to form a separate Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Another policy initiative for the development of Scheduled Castes is Special

Central Assistance to Special Component Plan, in which cent percent assistance

is given as additive to Schedules Caste Sub-Plan of the States/UTs on the basis of

certain criteria such as SC population of the States/UTs, relative backwardness of

the States/UTs percentage SC families in the States/UTs covered by composite

economic development programmes in the State Plan to enable them to cross the

poverty line, percentage of SCP to the Annual Plan as compared to SC

population percentage of the States/UTs2.

Similarly there are provisions for people belonging to tribal areas in terms of

their geographic and demographic concentration. There are states and UTs

which have a majority of scheduled tribe population, there are states UTs which

have a substantial tribal population but concentrated in particular administrative

units and some states and UTs have dispersed tribal population.

Tribal sub-Plan approach was adopted after delineating areas of tribal

concentration by paying special attention to pockets of tribal concentrations,

keeping in view their tenor of dispersal. To look after the tribal population

coming within the new tribal sub-Plan strategy in a coordinated manner,

Integrated Tribal Development Projects were conceived during Fifth Five Year

Plan and these have been continued since then. During the Sixth Plan, Modified

Area Development Approach (MADA) was adopted to cover smaller areas of

tribal concentration and during the Seventh Plan, the TSP strategy was extended

further to cover even smaller areas of tribal concentration and thus cluster of

tribal concentration were identified3.

There may be special status given and special provisions made for a particular

group to bring them to the mainstream, but the fact remains how these are

implemented at the ground level. One of the indicators to measure the status of

implementation is to look into the financial allocation in the government budget

vis-a-vis the real need. Until and unless there is matching allocation with regard

to actual requirement and proper utilisation of the money no programmes and

schemes will attain their desired goal.

1 http://socialjustice.nic.in/aboutdivision1.php 2 Ibid 1 3 http://tribal.nic.in/index3.asp?subsublinkid=309&langid=1

Demographic Profile of Children belonging to SC, ST and OBC

Community

The SC and ST population are generally disadvantaged in most of the states in

India. According to the 2001 Census, India has 16.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent of

SC and ST population respectively. The greatest concentrations of population of

SCs are in states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal,

Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar. The highest concentration of ST population

is found in the North-eastern States and also greater numbers in Chhattisgarh,

Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The

OBC data was not available in Census 2001.

An overview of the population figures shows that India has the largest young

population in the world. More than 42 per cent of the population is in the age

group 0-18 years. SC children between 0-18 yrs constitute 46.53 per cent4 of the

total SC population, and ST children (0-18 years) constitute 47.64 per cent of the

total ST population in India.

Stark Highlights

• The proportion of women age 15-19 who have begun childbearing for

women from scheduled castes is 20 per cent for scheduled tribes, 21 per

cent and for women from other backward classes it is 16 per cent

• Only 18 per cent of scheduled tribe mothers deliver in health facilities,

compared with 51 per cent mothers who do not belong to a scheduled

caste, scheduled tribe, or other backward class.

• Also, children from scheduled castes

and tribes are at greater risk of dying

than other children. The infant

mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 births)

for births less than 2 years apart is 86,

dropping to 50 for births 24-35 months

apart, and to 30 for births 36-47

months apart5.

• A much smaller percentage of

scheduled-tribe and scheduled caste

4 C-8 SC- Education Level By Age And Sex For Scheduled Caste Age 7 And Above, Census 2001 5 NFHS-III

Infant and Child Mortality Rates

Categories Neo-

Natal

Deaths

IMR Under-5

Mortality

General

(India

Total)

39 57 74.3

SC 46.3 66.4 88.1

ST 39.9 62.1 95.7

OBC 38.3 56.6 72.8

Source: NFHS-III

children are fully vaccinated, 31 per cent and 39.7 per cent respectively.

The percentage is slightly more in case of children from OBC with 40.7 per

cent.

• According to DISE Report 2009-10, around 19.18 per cent of SC, 10.93 per

cent of ST and 42.1 per cent of OBC children are enrolled in primary and

upper primary school.

Findings

The findings are quite revealing. All the three ministries, the Ministry of Human

Resources Development, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and

Ministry of Tribal Affairs have only focused on specific education schemes for

children from SC, ST and OBC background. Besides Education none of the other

sectors like health, development or protection finds any separate allocation

specially meant only for these groups.

• Other than education

schemes, there are no

programmes/ schemes

that are exclusively meant

for children belonging to

SCs, STs and OBCs.

Education is no doubt

important for the

development but equal

importance has to be

given to the health needs

of the children belonging

to this groups as well as

schemes meant for their

protection.

• Even though the health

indicators of children

belonging to socially

disadvantaged groups are

worst as compared to

others in general however,

there are no allocations

The major issues relating to implementation

of SCSP and TSP strategies are:

• Priority sectors and need-based

schemes/programmes for the benefit of SCs/STs,

such as education, health, and technical/vocational

training have not been devised as per the needs

based on equity considerations.

• Schemes related to minor irrigation, asset

creation, housing, and land distribution have not

been given adequate importance under SCSP and

TSP. The allocations typically made are only

notional in nature showing supposed benefits

accruing to SCs/STs welfare. h e funds allocated

are often not budgeted.

• Since the secretary in-charge of SC and ST

development is often not designated as the nodal

officer, there is no controlling and monitoring

mechanism for the planning, supervision, and

allocation of funds to these disadvantaged sectors.

Source: Mid-Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five

Year Plan, pg. 184

made under different plans for children in the existing health or

protection related scheme that are presently running in the country.

• Much of the resources for implementing the special component plan and

TASP comes from the state government themselves but the central share

must be reflected somewhere. It is reflected in case of education schemes.

But things are hopefully getting better, as from the General Budget of

2011-12, provisions made for Special component plan for SC are shown

separately.

• Child deaths due to malnutrition in the tribal dominated areas of Madhya

Pradesh, Maharashtra have been an unsolved problem. Is the central

government not planning a sustained effort to fight the menace by

implementing a special programmes or additional allocation in the

existing scheme?

• Children’s belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and

Other Backward Classes (OBC) altogether gets an average share of only 0.15

per cent (Rs 4416.56 crore) out of the total Union budget and 3.38 per cent

within Budget for Children (BfC) during 2004-05 to 2008-09. The allocation for

SC, ST and OBC is only for implementation of education schemes.

• An average of 5.18 per cent of the total allocation for education in Budget for

Children has gone to SC, ST and OBC during the period study (2004-05 to

2008-09).

• Post-matric Scholarship gets the highest allocation of Rs 2830.8 crore while

Merit based Scholarship gets the least allocation of only Rs 0.03 crore during

the year 2004-05 to 2008-09.

According to the Annual

Report of the Ministry, upto

December 2009, 296 lakh Girls

and 275 boys has been

benefitted under the scheme

Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas

Yojna.

Annual Report 2009-10, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,

Chapter 4, pp53.

• Over the period of study, there was a major hike in the budget allocation, by

over 129 per cent from Rs 607.04 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 1391 crore in 2008-09,

an average annual growth of 23.7 per cent. This major increase in 2008-09 is

due to budget allocation of Rs 80 crore towards the new scheme for

Upgradation of 2000 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBVs). There was

also an increase by over 200 per cent in the budget allocation for Education

Complex in low literacy pockets for Development of Women Literacy in Tribal

Areas.

• In the three years (2004-05 to 2006-07) where actual expenditure is available, it

was found that there was an under spending of 8.40 per cent in the 2004-05. In

2004-05 there has been an under spending for almost all the schemes with

major under spending been in the scheme meant for Ashram School with

60.71 per cent while Residential school for SC student shows no expenditure

throughout the three years.

• The Scheme for construction of Hostels

facilities for ST, SC and OBC for both Boys

and Girls in total gets an allocation of Rs

520.79 crore during 2004-05 to 2008-09, with

an under spending of 21.26 per cent in

2004-05, of which 45.8 per cent is in the

scheme for Hostels for ST Boys and Girls

funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Followed by an under spending of 14.7 per

cent in the Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas

Yojna earlier known as Hostel facilities for

SC boys and Girls under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

There was an under spending of 13.88 per cent in 2006-07. Evaluation studies

have pointed out that infrastructure facilities are quite poor in most of the

hostels, maintenance of the buildings is not up to the mark, and construction

of hostel buildings is often hampered due to non-receipt of proper/complete

proposals from the states10.

• Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), which was a separate scheme,

has now been merged with SSA from the year 2007-08. KGBV is one of the

initiatives made in the Educationally Backward Blocks (EBB) which provide

10 Mid-Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan, pg.168

for setting up of residential upper primary schools for girls of SC, ST, OBC

and Muslim community. Minimum reservations of 75 per cent are for

SC/ST/OBC and minority communities and 25 per cent to girls of below

poverty line family. This scheme received the highest allocation of Rs 453

crore (2004-05 to 2008-09) as compared to others schemes which benefits

children of these community.

• In 2004-05, KGBV received an allocation of Rs 100 crore which went up to Rs

225 crore in 2005-06 due to rising demand from states. Supplementary

proposals were received from West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh11. But the

allocation declined by 43 per cent in 2006-07, and thereafter it was merged

with SSA with effect from 1 April 2007.

• Up to 31 January 2008, 2,180 KGBVs were sanctioned and 1,724 operational,

the reason for the delay being unavailability of land for construction of schools

and court cases in some states12. The enrolment was 126,784 girls13. But as of 31

January 2009, 2,423 KGBVs are reported to be functional (i.e. 94 per cent) in

the states and 190,404 girls enrolled, of whom 50,630 are SC (27 per cent),

58,682 ST (31 per cent), 50,161 OBC (26 per cent), 18,206 BPL (9 per cent), and

12,725 minority (7 per cent).

• Upgrading 2000 KGBVs Residential hostels/Girls Hostels: A new scheme is

under formulation for creation of girls’ hostel facilities for secondary level

students. Under the proposed scheme, one girl’s hostel is to be established in

each educationally backward block (about 3500 in all). The hostels will be

located in KGBVs wherever feasible and these will be upgraded as residential

secondary schools based on their viability.

• The Merit Based, Pre and Post-matric Scholarship Scheme for SC and OBC

students when taken together gets a total allocation of Rs 3062.63 crore, which

is an average share of 68.11 per cent to the total allocation made towards

schemes belonging to SC,ST and OBC children. Here Scholarship schemes for

ST student is not taken into account as there is no separate mention of budget

figures for such schemes in the Detailed Demand for Grants (DDG)from 2004-

05 to 2008-09.

11 Minutes of the 70th Meeting of the Project Approval Board of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) held on 10th May, 2005, http://education.nic.in/ssa/70ssa_pab_kgbv.pdf 12 Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 833 Date. 4 March 2008, answered by M.A. A. Fatmi, Minister of State for Ministry of Human Resource Development. 13 Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3322, Date. 15 April 2008, answered by M.A.A Fatmi, Minister of State for Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Among the scholarship scheme for SC and OBC, Post-matric Scholarship Schemes

gets the highest allocation of Rs 2830.8 crore

during 2004-05 to 2008-09. The objective of the

scheme is to provide financial assistance to SC

and OBC students whose family income does

not exceed Rs 44,500 per annum to pursue

post-matriculation courses.

In all the schemes timely disbursement of

scholarships through banks across states and

UTs is needed so as to ensure that no student

faces difficulties and disruption in pursuing

further studies. This has also been reiterated

in the Mid Term appraisal of the Eleventh Five

Year Plan. There is also a need to enhance the stipend amount as well as the

income ceiling limit of the Post-Matric Schemes for the SC children.

Merit Based scholarship scheme which has been receiving an allocation of only 1

lakh in 2004-05 and 2006-07 shows that there was no expenditure made in both the

years, and subsequently there has been no allocation from 2007-08 onwards.

Number of Beneficiaries covered under the Post- and Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme

(lakh)

Year Post-matric Pre-matric

SC OBC SC OBC

2007-08 31.59 8.65 7.35 16.81

2008-09 34.36 13.757 6.18 17.00(approx.)

2009-10* 32.45(anticipated) 8.00(approx.) 4.63(anticipated) 9.00(approx.)

Source: Annual Report 2009-10, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

*Upto 31.12.2009

The scholarship amount provided

under the scheme for OBC has

remained unchanged since the

introduction of the scheme in 1998–

99. Therefore, there is an urgent

need to bring about an upward

revision of the scholarship amount

in accordance with the changes in

the cost of living.

Source: Mid-Term Appraisal of the

Eleventh Five Year Plan, pg. 184

Programmes and Schemes for SC, ST and OBC Schemes 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

BE RE AE BE RE AE BE RE AE BE RE BE

KGBV 100.00 90.00 92.57 225.00 225.0

0

223.6

3

128.00 128.0

0

115.6

0

0.00 0.00 0.00

Ashram Schools 14.00 6.00 5.50 0.00 6.00 6.00 16.00 15.50 15.50 20.00 20.00 30.00

Prematric

Scholarship

Scheme

32.80 26.80 28.65 24.00 43.00 30.46 41.00 41.00 45.52 50.00 32.50 84.00

Post Matric

Scholarship

334.97 334.97 354.9

4

401.84 404.0

6

574.2

5

484.99 520.0

5

579.7

6

725.00 945.00 884.00

Merit Based

Scholarship for

OBC

0.01 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Assistance to SC

Students in

Residential

Schools

5.00 0.01 0.00 0.01 5.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Hostel for SC

Boys & Girls

48.00 41.00 40.96 0.02 55.07 52.26 62.00 62.00 54.04 67.00 77.00 95.00

Hostel for ST

Boys & Girls

24.00 13.00 13.00 0.00 15.65 15.65 32.00 29.41 25.41 37.00 37.00 66.00

Hostel for OBC

Boys & Girls

12.76 12.76 12.78 0.01 15.24 17.93 21.00 21.00 19.58 21.00 21.00 35.00

Educational

Complex in Low

Literacy Pocket

for Development.

Of Women

Literacy in Tribal

Areas

8.50 8.00 7.68 6.00 6.00 6.00 32.00 8.00 7.91 20.00 20.00 60.00

Residential

school for SC

student

9.00 0.02 0.00 5.00 5.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.00 1.00 1.00 0.00

Upgradation of

Merit-SC&ST-

Special Coaching

18.00 2.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 6.22 3.00 3.00 3.00 1.00 2.00 2.00

Upgradation of

Merit of ST

students & PMS,

book Bank

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 34.80 34.80 0.00 39.80 39.80 55.00

Upgradation of

2000 KGBVs

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 80.00

As seen from the brief analysis there is much to be done in terms of schemes that

are being implemented in the country. There are not enough targeted schemes

for the all round development of the children and whatever is there is not being

implemented whole heartedly. As commented in the Mid-Term Appraisal of the

Eleventh Five Year Plan document— “Even after three decades of

operationalisation, the impression persist that SCSP and TSP are still not being

implemented satisfactorily. There are some genuine problems regarding

assignment or identification of benefits for infrastructure schemes, but even if

these are treated differently, it is not clear that the SCSP or TSP are working as

well as they should. The Planning Commission is reviewing the experience in

this area to see how the implementation of the SC/ST Sub-Plan can be improved.

New guidelines will be developed taking account of the experience thus far to

guide the formation of the Sub-Plan in the Twelfth Plan.”