Budget 2022: Child rights NGOs demand increased allocation for elimination of child labour

ting that safety of children should be centrepiece of Union Budget, child rights organisations have demanded an increased allocation for elimination of child labour and more investment in strengning social safety net.

y also said that effective preventive mechanisms need to be accelerated on an immediate basis.

Union Budget 2022-23 will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.

Executive Director Kailash Satyarthi Foundation Jyoti Mathur said overall percent share of budget allocation for children in Union Budget must be improved, and it should be restored at least to level of 2020-21. 

"It is teworthy to mention here that percent share of Union Budget allocated for welfare of children has been reduced from 3.16 per cent (2020-21) to 2.46 per cent (2021-22). This is lowest share of budget allocated for welfare of children in last 11 years," she said. 

"In addition, if we look at budget allocation for previous two years, total budget allocated towards welfare of children has declined by 11 per cent in 2021-22 over 2020-21 (a decline from Rs 96,042 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 85,713 crore in 2021-22)," she said.

re should also be an increased allocation for elimination of child labour with a comprehensive national action plan, Mathur added.

Or suggestions include an enhanced budgetary allocation for rehabilitation of bonded labour, which is a part of overall budget head of National Child Labour Project (NCLP).

"Since budget head of NCLP also includes grants-in-aid to voluntary ncies and reimbursement of assistance to bonded labour it appears impossible to provide any assistance to victims of bonded labour as allocation is grossly inadequate even to maintain fixed expenditure under NCLP," she said.

Mathur highlighted need for establishing an international Centre to address incidences of 'online child sexual abuse'.

Chief Executive Officer of CRYChild Rights and You, Puja Marwaha, said children should be placed at centre of any development discourse both for mselves and for inclusive growth of country and this should be centrepiece of Union Budget.

Elaborating on multiple impacts of Covid pandemic on children, she said, "Experiences and learnings from prior humanitarian crises have shown that children tend to be disproportionately affected during such critical times and ir rights, lives and well-being are at risk of irreparable harm."

"Owing to disruptions in education and health-care systems, lack of access to nutrition and protection services over past two years, ir vulnerabilities, especially within rural areas and marginalised communities have increased multiple times," Marwaha said.

COVID-19 has impacted children in diverse ways be it physical, emotional, cognitive, or social repercussions, including transition or migration, familial crises, isolation from friends, discontinuity of learning, environment, quarantine, hospitalisation of self or family members, and entry into adult roles of work or marri, she said. 

Consequently, lives of India's children were severely restricted in terms of ir access to education, nutrition and development, and child protection, Marwaha added.

Underscoring importance of adequate provisioning for child protection systems, she  said, "Given increase in numbers of children facing risks such as entry into child labour or marri, more investment in strengning social safety-net and effective preventive mechanisms needs to be accelerated on an immediate basis."

Im: PTI, SHUTTERSTOCK