Costing and Budget Analysis: National flagship programmes for children

Children below the age of 18 years account for more than 40% of India’s population. Performance on development indicators show that a lot of ground still needs to be covered by India towards securing the welfare of children and delivering their basic rights.

This study analyses the budgets of three National flagship programmes for children – (a) Sarva shiksha Abhiyan, (elementary education), (b) integrated Child development services (iCds) scheme and (c) integrated Child protection scheme – in an attempt to find out what financial resources are required to implement child-specific 

The study examines their implementation in the states of Bihar and Rajasthan and offers component-wise estimation on the budget required for their implementation. The study also analyses the allocation and expenditure for these programmes and makes suggestions for filling the gaps, and more efficient and effective implementation of these programmes.