By Afroz Alam Sahil
The Union Budget presented by Arun Jaitley disappointed Minorities, with existing schemes either seeing a marginal increase in budgetary allocations, or coming to an abrupt end.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs, which formulates the overall policy and planning, coordination, evaluation and review of the regulatory framework and development programmes for the benefit of the minority communities, saw its Budget increase by Rs 91 crore to Rs 3,827 crore.
However, what is more worrying is that unlike previous years, no new scheme has been announced while existing schemes have either had their funds slashed, or been ended.
Take the case of Multi-Sectoral Development Programme. The scheme, launched in 2008-09 in 90 Minority Concentrated Districts (MCDs), is aimed at improving the health and sanitation facilities, among others, in these areas. Last year, the Budget allocated Rs 1,251.64 crore to this scheme. This year, the amount has been brought to Rs 1,125 crore.
An important missing component in this year’s Budget for Minorities is the absence of an allocation for improvement of State Waqf Boards. Last year, the Budget had allocated Rs 6.7 crore for this scheme.
One of the worst hit sections in this year’s Budget have been the students. The provision made under pre-matric scholarship in 2015-16 was 1040 crore, which has been reduced to 931 crore in 2016-17–a reduction of 109 crore. Similarly, the post-matric scholarship scheme was allocated Rs 550 crore this year, a reduction of Rs 30 crore compared to last year.
The only scheme that has seen a substantial increase in budgetary allocations is the Maulana Azad National Fellowship, which will get Rs 80 crore, whereas last year’s allocation stood at Rs 49 crore.