Shivani Gupta and Swati Subhedar

On February 1, 2020, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget for the financial year 2020-21. The Union Budget 2020 was split into three categories – ‘Aspirational India’, ‘Economic Development’ and ‘A Caring Society’.

While the ‘Aspirational India’ and ‘Economic Development’ heads talked about farmer-centric welfare issues, skill development, and strengthening entrepreneurship within the country, the ‘Caring Society’ head focused on women and child, social welfare, culture and tourism and also on environment and climate change.

Women-related schemes get Rs 28,600 crore

The opportunities open up for women to pursue higher education and careers. The Budget allocated Rs 28,600 crore outlay for women related schemes. Talking about the education of women, the Finance Minister said that the numbers of gross enrollment of girls have improved. The FM also said that the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ initiative of the government has yielded tremendous results since the gross enrollment of girls seems to have overtaken that of boys. 

At the elementary level, the enrollment was found out to be 94.32 per cent for girls as against 89.28 per cent for boys. At the secondary level, it was 81.32 per cent for girls as against 78 per cent for boys. At the higher secondary level, it was 59.7 per cent for girls while it was 57 per cent for boys.

Addressing nutrition of women

The finance minister said that the health of mother and child are closely co-related. Nutrition is a critical component of health. To improve the nutritional status of children (0-6 years), adolescent girls, and pregnant women, “Poshan Abhiyan” was launched in 2017-18. There are imperatives of improving nutrition levels. The Budget allocated Rs 35,600 crore for nutrition-related programmes for 2020-21. To improve national nutritional status of girls and women, more than six lakh Anganwadi workers have been equipped with smartphones to upload nutritional status of more than 10 crore households.

Addressing funds for SCS, STS, and OBCS

The government has allocated Rs 85,000 crore for the welfare of Scheduled Caste and other backward classes. It has provided Rs 53,700 crore for the development and welfare of Scheduled Tribe.

The FM ensured that there shall be no manual cleaning of sewer systems or septic tanks and that the suitable technologies for such tasks have been identified by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The ministry would be working with urban local bodies for the adoption of these technologies. The finance minister said that the government is mindful of the concerns of senior citizens and Divyang. Therefore, Rs 9,500 crore funds would be provided for them for 2020-21.

Environment & Climate Change

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), which was launched last year, would enhance the climate change adaptation. It would focus on disaster-resilient infrastructure.

The finance minister suggested that the utilities which run thermal power plants that have higher carbon emission levels would be shut. The government aims to reduce carbon footprint and has allocated Rs 4,400 crore for climate change and Rs 4,000 crore for clean air. 

The government proposed to implement plans for ensuring cleaner air in cities having population above one million. Allocation for this purpose has been fixed Rs 4400 crore for the year 2020-21.