The National Education Policy 2020 greatly emphasizes Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). NEP 2020 observes that 85% of children’s brain development occurs during the early years of life, which is till the age of 6. But currently, quality ECCE is not accessible for socially and economically marginalized children as the large preschool network is run by chains of elite and high-fee schools. NEP 2020 recommends that “For universal access to ECCE, Anganwadi Centres will be strengthened with high-quality infrastructure, play equipment, and well-trained Anganwadi workers/teachers. Every Anganwadi will have a well-ventilated, well-designed, child-friendly and well-constructed building with an enriched learning environment.” (P.7) Hence, the policy recommended a target of Universalization of ECCE. Recently, two organizations namely, ‘Save the Children’ and ‘CBGA’ (Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability) released a report on the “Cost of Universalizing Early Childhood Education in India.” The report suggests that, as per the Census 2011, 99 million children are eligible for ECE services. But as per Lok Sabha Q & A 2020 in the current availability of resources, only 31.4 million children are covered under Anganwadi services. According to the above-mentioned report, 32% of the children are deprived of Anganwadi services or out of the system. On participation of children in ECCE, one more popular dataset, NSSO 75th Round, mentioned that 37 million children do not avail of ECCE services whether provided by the public sector or private sector or those provided by the private aided/unaided sector. On investment in ECCE, the report of Save the Children and CBGA suggests that government institutions spend 1030 INR per child and private institutions spend 12,834 INR per child. The analysis of the same report suggests that “the total resource requirement to provide universal quality ECCE services to all the children in the 3-6 year age group would be in the range of 1.5%-2.2% of the GDP.” But as mentioned above the current spending on ECCE by the country is just 0.1% of the GDP. Recently the Honorable Minister of Finance, Government of India presented the Union Budget 2023-24 for the financial year 2023-24. 25448.75 Crore INR is allocated for the Ministry of Women and Child Development out of which 20554.31 Crore INR is allocated for ‘Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0’ (Umbrella ICDS – Anganwadi Services, Poshan Abhiyan, Scheme for Adolescent Girls). The budget of this scheme used to be divided among four heads till the Union Budget 2020-21. This scheme is used to cover Anganwadi Services (Erstwhile Core ICDS), National Nutrition Mission, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and National Creche Scheme. For the current financial year, this scheme got 81% of the total budget of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The budget document of the Ministry of Finance defines this scheme as, “to develop practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity among malnutrition. The schemes of Anganwadi Services, Adolescent Girls and Poshan Abhiyaan have been re-aligned under Poshan 2.0 for maximizing nutritional outcomes. Components under the schemes have been reorganized into 3 primary verticals viz. Nutrition Support for POSHAN and for Adolescent Girls, Early Childhood Care and Education (3- 6 years) and Anganwadi Infrastructure including modern, upgraded Saksham Angawadis.”

Figure 1:

In the last five financial years, the budget for this scheme is constantly in a declining trend. It came down from 0.85% of the total budgeted expenditure in 2019-20 to 0.46% during 2023-24. The above graph (Figure 1) also suggests that there was a sharp decline in the percentage from 0.81% of total expenditure in 2020-21 to 0.58% during the next year. Interestingly this year was the next year of NEP 2020 and the year when children of the country were affected more due to the Covid-19 scenario. In the NEP 2020, the Government of India set the country’s ambition to universalize the ECCE and the Covid-19 scenario further added to the need to allocate more funds for the development of the children of the country. Budget Estimates should incorporate both aspirations and needs of any sector. But when we look at the allocation for this scheme in the last five years, it suggests that we have been failing to allocate the appropriate amount for the welfare of children. Figure 2:

Budget Estimates (BE) in the Budget document is not necessarily the actual expenditure incurred during the financial year. That is why the Ministry of Finance revises the estimates (RE) during the middle of the financial year. For the scheme ‘Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0’ year after actual expenditure is lesser than the Budget Estimates for the year. During 2019-20, the Government spent 80% of BE and 89% of RE. In the next financial year 2020-21, actual expenditure fell to 66% of BE and the percentage expenditure of RE was 91%. In the financial year 2021-22 again the actual expenditure increased to 91% of BE and the percentage expenditure of RE was at 92%. The above bar diagram suggests the gap between BE and Actual expenditure during three financial years from 2019-20 to 2021- 22. During the financial year 2020-21 the gap was very high compared to the other two financial years.

Looking at the previous Union Budget documents it comes to notice that 85-90 per cent of this scheme is allocated for ‘Anganvadi Services’ alone. Overall analyses of the budgetary scenarios suggested that rather than allocating quality and appropriate budget for the ‘Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0’ the budgetary allocations did not even reach close to the ideal target of 1.5%-2.2% of GDP as recommended by the experts. So, how is the country going to achieve the target of universalization of ECCE by 2030? In a way, the policy gave a target of bringing more than 35% of the total children population of the country into the fold of ECCE. But how can it be achieved? The current Budget does not satisfactorily answer these questions, effectively leaving the future of children in a lurch. We must remember, as the latest NHFS data shows, children have been immensely affected by the pandemic, as well as the broader contexts of malnutrition, inequality in education access, hunger, poverty, stunting, and so on. The Budget should have come as a relief to these vulnerable sections, but unfortunately, the truth is quite to the contrary.