#dnaEdit: Responsive budgeting

In times when governments are showing a lack of commitment to education and health in terms of budgetary spending, the Delhi government’s 2015-16 budget has blazed a new trail with a 106 % increase in public spending on education and a 45 % hike in health allocation. Often, political parties promise the moon to the electorate and deliver populism to some extent in terms of subsidies, but fight shy of providing the investment needed for systemic reforms. Even when budgetary allocations are made, the implementation lags or the funds lapse, and subsequent budgets — more often than not — renege on the commitment to policies made in the preceding budgets. For the Aam Aadmi Party, this budget was an opportunity to cater to the needs and aspirations of the poor and the middle classes who had voted overwhelmingly in its favour. And the AAP has not disappointed them. The government has set aside 24 % (Rs4,570 crore) of its total plan outlay of Rs19,000 crore to education, 17 % to health, 20 % to transport and 12 % to social welfare. It has proposed to open 236 schools, recruit 20,000 regular teachers, start 500 neighbourhood clinics, add 1,000 hospital beds this fiscal year and 10,000 more in the next three years, besides putting 10,000 additional buses on the roads.

One reason that allows Delhi to spend more on social services is its wide tax base and excellent revenue collections. Besides, Delhi does not occupy a large rural area. The state is only minimally dependent on its share of central taxes and grants, though finance minister Manish Sisodia grabbed the occasion to complain that the Centre’s increased devolution of central taxes from 32 to 42 % did not apply to Delhi. Deemed a Union Territory, only four % of Delhi’s revenues come from the central pool. But Sisodia should not be complaining; he has managed to present a surplus budget after impressive allocations to social sectors and little central help. In contrast, the central government tom-tommed its commitment to cooperative federalism through increased devolution of funds to states, but has achieved this by slashing budgetary funds to social sector schemes. Funds for the Integrated Child Development Scheme were cut by 51 %, for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan by 20 %, Mid-Day Meal Scheme by 25 %, and the National Health Mission by 17 % in the Union Budget 2015-16.

Ultimately, governments can make huge allocations but implementation is the key for the welfare projects to deliver. Rajasthan allocated nearly Rs25,000 crore for education and health in 2014-15, but had spent only Rs15,550 crore of this amount by January 2015. The creation of a new body, the Delhi Urban Development Agency, to monitor developmental works appears to stem from a recognition that the execution of government projects involves a long hierarchy of bureaucrats, engineers and private contractors. Yet another innovative direction is the allocation of Rs253 crore for a Swaraj Fund to take up projects mooted by “mohalla sabhas”.

However, the mohalla sabhas are still at an experimental stage. In a similar vein, it is unclear how the increased allocation for schools will be utilised. Would school management committees comprising parents, teachers and social workers have a say in the execution of projects? It is equally important to focus on learning outcomes. However, the budget’s focus seems to be on improvement of facilities and concepts like “value education” and “skill education”. The AAP government has focused on teacher recruitment to reduce the present gap in teacher-student ratio. Yet it seems to have lost sight of the aspect of declining quality of education, flagged by successive Annual Survey of Education(ASER) reports. The ASER findings point to poor arithmetic, verbal and problem-solving skills among students. Budgetary allocations mostly focus on quantitative outcomes; it is time to institutionalise social audits to gauge the qualitative outcomes.