50% cut in allocation of funds for women, child development schemes

Over Rs 8,000 crore has been allocated for schemes dealing with malnutrition among children and pregnant women in the current financial year, a cut of almost 50 per cent from last year. 

Ministry officials said in the current year there has been a drastic cut in the fund allocation for the development of women and children. The plan outlay of the ministry which was Rs 21,000 crore in 2014-15, has been cut to Rs 10,286.73 crore in 2015-16, registering a decrease of 50% .

The maximum allocation of Rs 8335.77 crore has been given to Integrated Women and Child Development scheme which is significantly low from last years’ budget of Rs 18,195 crore.

The ICDS, which is implemented through a network of 7,067 operational projects and about 13.42 lakh Anganwadi centres, is a scheme for holistic development of children.