‘Ensure more funds for WCD plans’

NEW DELHI: Dismayed at the almost 50% cut in budget, a parliamentary panel has urged the women and child development (WCD) ministry to seek more funds to ensure that their schemes do not suffer.
"The committee is dismayed to note that there has been a substantial decrease in the budgetary allocation in child welfare and women-related schemes. The committee recommends ministry of finance to make Rs 1,500 crore as promised by the finance minister before Parliament at the earliest lest the schemes of the department suffer," the report said.
The allocation for the ministry has been reduced to Rs 10,287 crore from last year's Rs 21,000 crore.
The panel also asked the ministry to put more energy and resources to reverse the trend of declining child sex ratio (CSR) in the country. "The steadily declining CSR in the country has reached emergency proportions and urgent actions must be taken to alleviate the crisis," the report said.
There has been constant decline in CSR over the last four to five censuses and particularly a steep decline in the report of 2011, which registered a fall from 927 girls per 1,000 boys in the age group of 0-6 years to 918 per 1,000 boys.
According to ministry officials, the phenomenon has spread to areas which were not known for disparity in CSR, including tribal areas and eastern states. The trend is particularly acute in more developed areas of the country including metropolitan cities.