Published in The Daily Star on Friday, 5 June 2015.
Thoughts for children
Budget contains 24-page report
Staff Correspondent
This year an additional document to identify the government’s overall allocation and expenditure for the betterment of children has been prepared under the title ‘Shishuder Niye Budget Vabna’ (Budget thoughts for Children).
The 24-page report analyses projects, programmes and other initiatives related with the needs, rights and welfare of children.
The report also took into account the budgetary allocations of five ministries directly related to socioeconomic development of children.
The five ministries are the ministry of health and family welfare, ministry of education, ministry of primary and mass education, social welfare ministry and ministry of women and children’s affairs.
Shahida Parvin, research associate of Centre for Policy Dialogue, said, “This initiative would actually provide us information on government spending in child-related activities.””We cannot actually call it child budget. In fact, Finance Minister AMA Muhith also called it ‘budget thoughts for children’,” she said.
Among the five ministries, the primary and mass education ministry spent the highest amount for the children in the fiscal 2014-15, while the ministry of women and children’s affairs spent the least — Tk 264 crore.
For child-related activities, Tk 13,912 crore budgetary allocation has been proposed in fiscal 2015-16 for the primary and mass education ministry, Tk 9,646 crore for education ministry, Tk 1,516 crore for the ministry of health and family welfare, Tk 465 crore for social welfare ministry and Tk 312 crore for ministry of women and children’s affairs.