Healthwire Bureau
New Delhi, January 31: Child rights bodies on Friday urged the government to increase funding in this Union Budget for protection, healthcare and education of children to improve the country’s child development index.
Child rights NGO Save the Children and Child Rights and You (CRY) submitted their recommendations to the Finance Ministry in the pre-budget consultation meet last month.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget 2020 on Saturday.
Increasing public funding for Child Protection Services from 0.9 to 1.5 per cent of GDP, budget for integrated child protection scheme and enhancement of budgets for open shelters were some of the recommendations submitted by Save the Children.
The other recommendations were to increase public funding on education to at least 6 per cent of GDP and on health to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2021.
CRY recommended investing in a robust secondary school education system, building the pre-primary school education system and emphasising ground action on reduction of child malnutrition.
Puja Marwaha, the CEO of CRY, said she hopes that the Union Budget 2020-21 will show a positive intent for the child, both in letter and spirit. Children need a safe, protecting and enabling environment in which they can learn, grow and develop to their full potential.
