Presenting the General Budget 2018-19 in Parliament here today, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitely  said that the total earmarked allocation for SCs in 279 programmes has been increased from ₹ 34,334 crore in 2016-17 to ₹ 52,719 crore in RE 2017-18.  Likewise, for STs, earmarked allocation has been increased from ₹ 21,811 crore in 2016-17 to ₹ 32,508 crore in RE 2017-18 in 305 programmes.  The Finance Minister said that earmarked allocation  has been further increased to ₹ 56,619 crore for SCs and ₹ 39,135 crore for STs in BE 2018-19.

Earmarked allocation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes increased, strengthening targeted budgetary provision for welfare programmes. Earmarked allocation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under central budgetary programmes has been increased across successive fiscal years, reporting higher reserved funding across hundreds of programmes and further upward revisions proposed in the budget estimates for the coming year as a central-government financing decision to strengthen programme-level resource targeting for social welfare and development measures.