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Interim Budget fails to meet expectations of the common man: JAA activists
JAA, a cluster of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in healthcare, on Friday said that while the budget allocation for healthcare has increased by 1.6% from ₹92,806 crore in 2023-24 to ₹94,371 crore in 2024-25, considering last year’s inflation of 3.4%, the allocation is less
While the Interim Union Budget 2024 presented by union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday allocates ₹94,371 crore for healthcare and aims to improve access to healthcare services and infrastructure in India, Jan Aarogya Abhiyan (JAA) activists claim that it has failed to meet the expectations of the common man.
JAA, a cluster of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in healthcare, on Friday said that while the budget allocation for healthcare has increased by 1.6% from ₹92,806 crore in 2023-24 to ₹94,371 crore in 2024-25, considering last year’s inflation of 3.4%, the allocation is less. As such, the allocation for healthcare has decreased from last year to this year, JAA said.
Furthermore, the budget makes a provision of ₹16,052 per capita for central employees; Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members whereas for common citizens, it makes a provision of only ₹2,400 per capita. The provision itself shows the nature of the government’s commitment to common citizens. There is no increase in the budget allocation for healthcare, and the central government expenditure on healthcare has declined by 0.31% to 0.29% instead of the expected increase of 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Dr Anant Phadke, health activist and state coordinator for JAA, said that the budget provision for healthcare since 2014 has been minimal. The government’s National Health Policy of 2017 had stated that expenditure on healthcare by central and state governments would increase to 2.5% of the Gross National Product (GNP) by 2025 and that the share of the central government would be 40% (1% of the GNP). “Accordingly, this year, a budget allocation of 1% of the GNP ( ₹3.27 lakh crore) was required for healthcare. However, this year’s allocation is ₹94,371 crore, which is almost 1/4th of the requirement. No steps have been taken to cover the past backlog of so many years, to make some substantial progress and fulfil the promises made during elections,” Dr Phadke said.
Dr Abhijit More, health activist, JAA, said that the finance minister has announced the inclusion of ASHA and Anganwadi workers in the PMJAY scheme. “For the scheme, the government has made a budget provision of ₹7,200 crore but in the past five years, not even 1/4th of it was utilised. This is because several people have not yet received PMJAY cards. The number of beneficiaries has been increased but the budget remains the same,” Dr More said.
Dr More said that they welcome the government’s announcement of vaccination against cervical cancer for girls aged nine to 14 years. Like other countries, the programme was likely to be started in India but there are no details about its budget provisions, Dr More said. “The effect of this vaccine will be visible after 25 to 30 years. To prevent this cancer in older women, a low-cost early detection programme is required. However, nothing has been said about it and the question arises whether the goal is cervical cancer prevention or boosting vaccine manufacture. Two more announcements have been made but without details of the budget provisions,” Dr More said.
