FM holds his Fourth Pre Budget Consultation Meeting for Union Budget 2018-19 with the Stakeholders across Social Sector Organizations

FM agrees with Stakeholders demand that Administrative Ministries should release Welfare Schemes funds on priority to beneficiaries

Stakeholders give suggestions spanning wide-ranging concerns in Social Sector from more funds for Education, Health, Child Protection, ICDS, Nutritional security, Old age care to Capacity Building and transparency in accounting among others.

The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley today held consultations with the representatives from more than twenty Social Sector Stakeholder organizations. The stakeholders represented interests for Dalit Human Rights, Right to Food, Right to Education, Budget and Governance Accountability, Child Protection concerns, senior citizens’ needs, water conservation needs, nutrition and health concerns. FM agreed with Stakeholders demand that Administrative Ministries should release Welfare Schemes funds on priority to beneficiaries. Shri Jaitley said his Government is fully committed in ensuring cost effective fund utilization of the Welfare Schemes spanning the various Social Sector Ministries. The Finance Minister also welcomed the suggestions of the representatives desiring greater allocation of funds for Child protection schemes; Nutrition security concerns; more targeted benchmarks to improve quality of Government funded schools; healthcare for the elderly and incentives to ensure better employment conditions for working mothers; streamlining the vocational training to boost employment; aid paperless, presence less and cashless dealings with employers to ensure transparency for employees and address needs of labour in the Informal Sector.

Along with the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley, the Pre-Budget Consultative Meeting with the representatives of Social Sector Groups was also attended among others by Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Finance Secretary, Shri Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary (Economic Affairs), Shri Rakesh Srivastava, Secretary, Women & Child Development(WCD), Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) and Ms. Kalpana, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The representatives of various Social Sector Union Groups who attended the today’s meeting included among others Ms. Bina Pallical, Director, Economic Rights, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, Sree Harica, Programme Director, Mines Minerals and People, Ms Kavita Srivastava, Convenor, Right to Food Campaign, Asadullah, Programme Director, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, Shri Ambarish Rai, Convenor, Right to Education Forum, Bidisha Pilla, CEO, Save the Children, Shri Bipul Chatterjee, CUTS International, Ms. Yamini Aiyar, Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Ms. Rukmini Banerjee, CEO, Pratham, Ms. Mirai Chatterjee, Director of Social Security, Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Shri Mathew Cherian, CEO, Helpage India, Ms Komal Ganotra from Child Rights and You (CRY), Shri Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services Ltd., Anil Nair, Deputy Head, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship ad Democracy, Bin Chacko, Manager, World Vision India, Shri V. R. Raman, Head of Policy, WaterAid, Shri Subhas Singh, Chairman, National Confederation of Dalit Organization (NACDOR), Sehjo Singh, Programme Director, Actionaid and Ms Subhadra Menon from Kailash Satyarthi Childern’s Foundation.

Administrative release of welfare funds prioritized to beneficiaries, with reforms for transparency and targeted social sector funding. Pre budget consultations urged prioritisation of administrative release of welfare scheme funds to beneficiaries and enhanced cost effective utilisation across social sector ministries. Stakeholders sought targeted increases and reforms for child protection, nutrition security, school quality benchmarks, elderly healthcare, working mothers' employment incentives, vocational training for employment, and labour transparency through paperless, presence less and cashless employer interactions.