Leave No One Behind: Does India’s Union Budget 2024-25 reflect this sentiment?

The following statement has been issued by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights

‘Leave No One Behind’ is the Central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals which is a priority of India too. The question is, does our action at the national level reflect our commitment to this promise? And how do we know? The Union Budget reflects the visions and committed actions and the Political will to actually ‘Leave no one behind’.

India, the largest democracy in the world is also home to diverse cultures, communities, lingo, caste, and creed which are to a large extent woven into the fabric of the Caste system and hence caste-based discrimination, one of the unacceptable forms of Human Right Violation in the country. In the name of forest conservation, preservation, and climate action, thousands of Adivasis, and forest dwellers are evicted from their natural habitat and exposed to a chaotic habitat they are not accustomed to.

The Union Budget reflects the political will of the government in delivering socio-economic justice to the citizens which are guaranteed by the constitution of India. It is by large an important tool for measuring the impact of developmental actions and programs for the well-being of the citizen. The ruling government introduced the Interim budget in February 2024 and the final budget was released yesterday by the Hon’ble Finance Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitaraman.

The trend in diversion of the large portion of the allocation to general schemes still continues. It is to be noted that Dalits and Adivasi along with other marginalized sections of the community are still far away from mainstream society in terms of education, employment, ownership of land, and protection against communal violence and atrocities. The loosening grip of the Set guidelines currently known as Development Action Plan for Scheduled Caste-DAPSC and Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribe-DAPST on the union budget strongly questions the political will of the government. The diverse socio-economic map of the country calls for a unique and multisectoral approach to address the developmental needs of the communities, but does our Union Budget reflect the political will and deliberate action of government towards these developmental needs? It is largely debatable.

The total union budget allocation for the Financial Year-FY 2024-25 is Rs.51,89,144cr. out of which the total allocation for the welfare of the Scheduled caste is Rs.1,65,493cr. and Rs.1,24,909cr. for the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes. It is quite surprising but not shocking to see that only Rs.46,192cr. has been allocated under the targeted schemes for SCs and Rs.41,730 cr. for STs. The allocation under the National Overseas Scholarship is Rs.95.00cr. for SC and Rs.6.00 cr. for ST for this FY 2024-25. The post-matric scholarship which is one of the most important scholarships has an allocation of Rs. 6349.97 for SCs which is slightly lesser than what they allocated last year and for STs it is Rs. 2374.15 an increase from last year which was Rs. 1970.77 Cr. The demand is to increase this allocation to Rs. 10,000 CRs.

Land ownership, sustainable Livelihood, food security, Disaster Relief, and Protection against atrocities are some of the core developmental areas that require attention, and exclusive and adequate allocation for Dalit and Adivasi communities because they are the most vulnerable and susceptible to Socio-economic discrimination and Disasters. The eviction of the Slum dwellers, Forest dwellers, and dependants are serious human rights issues that need intervention but no allocation has been made for the rehabilitation of evicted people from the Slums in the union budget. Under the housing Schemes for Scheduled Caste, Rs17,164,31 cr. has been allocated and Rs.14,105,91cr. has been allocated for Scheduled tribes which needs an increase.

Dalits comprise the largest Sanitation workforce working as Safai Karamchari in the country but sadly the human rights component is swiped under the rug on the pretext that sanitation work issues are nothing but the issue of Mechanisation. The total allocation under the NAMASTE Scheme is Rs.116.94cr. and the total allocation for the National Safai Karamchari Finance and Development Corporation is Rs.0.01.cr. The rampant death of Dalit Safai Karamchari in the sewage and manhole is still prevalent yet preventable, who is accountable and how long will it take for the MS Act of 2013 to work on the real ground?

NCDHR points out that Crimes and atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis are increasing every year and yet the allocation for the Implementation of the POA(Prevention of Atrocities Act,1989) and PCR( Protection of Civil Rights Act,1955) is only Rs.550 cr. NCDHR calls for the immediate attention of the Government to protect the rights and entitlement of the Dalit and Adivasis through adequate allocation under the targeted schemes for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe and prevent the diversion of funds to general schemes. Let the promise ‘Leave no one behind’ resonate with the actions and promises that are made to the thousands of Dalits and Adivasis.

We do hope that the in the revised budget estimates the ministry will take cognizance of the gaps in the budget allocation and ensure adequate allocation is given for the schemes directly impacting the community.