New Delhi: The Budget 2021 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is "a lacklustre one" if viewed from the perspective of Dalits and Adivasis with not many promises in the numbers, said the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) on Tuesday.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Beena Pallical, general secretary, NCDHR, said, "...that is a very lacklustre budget from the perspective of Dalits and Adivasis. The total allocation for them is much higher in comparison to the previous year budget. However, when we break it down, there is a very less amount of this total allocation is directly benefiting the community."
The total budget estimate is Rs 34,83, 237 crores and the allocation for the Scheduled castes is Rs 1,26,259 crores and for Scheduled Tribes, it is Rs 79,942 crores, said NCDHR.
Beena Pallical said instead of giving direct benefit to the community, the budget is being directly used in sectors such as education, health.
According to NCDHR analysis, 41 Ministries/Departments are supposed to earmark a total fund of Rs 1,61,260 crore for SC communities under 330 schemes but the target allocation for SC communities is only Rs 48,397 crore; for STs it was supposed to be Rs 88,077 crore but targeted is Rs 27,830 crore out of 330 total schemes for SCs, only 52 are targeted schemes and 278 are non-targeted schemes amounting to Rs 48,397 crore and Rs 77,862 crore respectively. Similarly, for STs out of 326 total schemes, only 58 are targeted schemes and 268 are non-targeted schemes amounting Rs 27,830 crore and Rs 52,112 crore respectively.
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The general secretary of NCDHR said we expected a lot of money for post-metric scholarship but in FY 2021-22, the PMS for SCs is Rs 3,415.62 crore and for ST it is Rs 1,993 crores which is insufficient to cater to the growing demands of students.
Pallical recommended to continue increasing the amount of post-matric scholarship, a minimum social protection floor which guarantees access to universal basic healthcare, basic income security to all Dalits and Adivasis.
