Budget for children. A summary report 2004-05 to 2008-09

Centre for Child Rights (HAQ), a pioneer in undertaking analysis of budget for children (BfC) in India, began with a decadal analysis of the Union (National) Budget from a child rights perspective in the year 2000. Since then HAQ has been involved in the analysis of children’s share in both allocation and expenditure in the Union Budget. For HAQ, budget is another indicator for assessing fulfilment of government’s promises and commitments made towards its people. This study offers a review of the Union Budget of India as well as the budgets of six states: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal- for a five year period covering 2004-05 to 2008-09. The analysis is made more exhaustive by including the latest actual expenditure figures that are usually available with a two-year lag. The objective is to evaluate the budget provisions made by the Government of India as well as the state governments towards ensuring the rights of children in the areas of survival, protection and development and examine how far the financial commitments have fallen short of fulfilling these rights.