While working with people on rights-based development approach, many NGOs and activists, who have been working on the socio-economic issues, have experienced that the laws and policies of the country affect the cross-section of the population—in many cases by providing more facilities to a privileged few on the one hand and by curtailing the basic provisions of the unprivileged ones on the other, and, thus, by widening the gap between the two.
In the recent years, NGOs who work with the poor have feared that the government
policies of privatisation would cause hardship when the government pulled back
from health, education, food security, environmental protection etc. Liberalisation,
privatisation, and globalisation policies, it was feared, would influence economy, society and
culture. Liberal policies would make the rich richer and the poor poorer through the opening up of the
home market to the multinationals as well as by inviting dismal competition between the stronger and weaker sections. Such policies have the core idea of withdrawing the spirit of supporting and protecting the relatively weaker section and helping grow an unbalanced socio-economic structure. In the last 15 years, this fear has been proved to be true if we look at the trends of many of the socio-economic development indicators, e.g. health, education, the condition of women and children, tribal community, marginal farmers, village industrial sector, urban small entrepreneurs etc.
Some advocates of the principles of globalisation do not subscribe to this view. According to them, the hardship that the poor have been facing is mainly due to lack of their fitness into the competitive environment and, at the same time, the advocates of globalisation principle ignore the need for any kind of egalitarian policy approach for the balanced socio-economic development since such approach stands on the way of capital accumulation that takes place through competition among different economic agents. It is true that the poor unskilled people are misfit in the competitive world. But a democracy ought not to ignore a large number of poor people and formulate a policy for a privileged few, because the poor people send the maximum number of legislators to the Assemblies and Parliament in a developing country like India, on the one hand, and the legislators and their political parties commit several promises for the development of the Poor during their election campaign and before coming to power, on the other. So, the policy and the subsequent budget of the government should reflect an egalitarian approach so that the interests of the low-income, deprived and marginalized people, i.e. the majority of the population, are well protected through the policies and budgetary allocations of the government. Moreover, there is a need to monitor whether or not the poor people are receiving the fruits of budgetary allocations. And it is at this point that the study of the Budget Analysis becomes important. Analysis of budgets in the light of the policy statements and comparison between budget estimate and actual expenditure may shed lights on the reasons for the deteriorating social and economic condition of the Poor.
Budget analysis, when added to field data and case-study materials, strengthens advocacy and lobbying work. Hence this Budget Analysis Centre intends to study the Rajasthan State Budget by interacting with the NGOs and activists who are working in the field. In addition, the Centre intends to collect primary data directly from the field for its micro studies. We believe that when the secondary data on budget—analysed by the Centre—would be combined with the field data about employment, food security, health facilities, and other “life and death” matters, they would be able to strengthen the lobbying work because the results of our studies would finally be combined with people’s voices for reaching both the voters and elected representatives who are playing important roles in our democratic process. Thus, budget analysis would strengthen People’s Action.
Vision
To ensure the rights of each poor to survive "with dignity" by eliminating the skewed pattern of fund/resource allocation through redistributive measures.
Mission
1.
To demystify the tricky number games presented in the budget books by the Rajasthan Government through quality analysis;
2.
To build capacity of the civil society organizations and people's organizations with an objective of strengthening the pressure group and networking so as to ensure greater public expenditure for meeting the basic needs – in other words, basic rights -- of the poor (e.g. the right to food, the right to livelihood, the right to education, the right to health, the right to housing, the right to development etc.);
3.
To sensitize the legislators regarding the limited financial provisions for the poor and the rural areas and also to build their capacity so that their voice gets stronger in the Assembly and other forums and that they can outstrip the bureaucrats -- with proper suggestions including facts and figures -- in the process of policy formulations as well as implementations and, of course, in budget allocations in favour of the poor and socially excluded sections.
4.
To understand the tricky process of financial decentralisation and thereby share our understanding with the PRI members and other local actors in order to build their capacity regarding the budget making process and financial allocations under different schemes so as to strengthen their voice for greater decentralization and transparency in terms of resource distribution from the top to bottom;
5.
To understand the gap between the measures taken at the higher bodies to address the dire needs of the poor and how far things have improved in reality at the grassroot level; and to convey such understandings to the people of the cross-section of the society through different means;
6.
To draw the attention of the media towards the issues pertaining to the limited distribution of resources for the poor and other pertaining lacunas in the distributive system, and thereby the needs for the "redistributive policies"; and to use their platform;
Strategies
1.
To analyze Rajasthan State Budgets and extract out the findings, highlighting the relevant aspects from the perspective of the poor and marginalized;
2.
To organize budget orientation meetings for the civil society organizations, people's organizations and others at different regions of Rajasthan;
3.
To organize issue-based budget orientation meetings for the capacity building of the concerned issue-related organizations and others as well;
4.
To organize budget orientation meetings for the legislators and help them by sending questions relating to the anomalies in funding and expenditures, and other related matters;
5.
To carry out experimental visits at the gram panchayat offices and hold detailed talks with the elected representatives of the panchayats to have better understanding about the budget making process at the local level, the need-based demands of the local bodies and the overall financial decentralisation process;
6.
To organize budget orientation meetings for the PRI members at different parts of Rajasthan;
7.
To conduct micro-studies on different issues, which incorporates field-level data collection and analysis;
8.
To disseminate our analytical findings, research results etc. through the publications of booklets, newsletters etc.;
9.
To organize press conference and share the findings of our analysis with the media;
10.
To encourage different organizations and people to come to us for budget information and thereafter satisfy their queries with data and information;
11
To attend and participate in different meetings and share our views with others to strengthen networking;
12.
To visit at other budget centres in the country in order to learn any new effective methodology and advocacy strategy and thereafter apply them in our work for greater effectiveness.
The key objectives
1.
To see whether the Rajasthan Government is withdrawing its budget allocations and the budget priorities;
2.
To monitor the working policies of those who govern and to communicate with them;
3.
To facilitate public discourse on budget governance issues, encourage citizen’s participation, and advance the rights of those most underprivileged;
4.
To help learn to strengthen their petition by using budget data;
5.
To advocate for a pro-people, pro-poor, and pro-marginalized perspective in budget allocations;
6.
To demystify the budget by making it and the other budget- related documents transparent, user-friendly, and readable to the public;
7.
To address how poor people are left out from the budget policies and priorities;
8.
To examine budget spending trends and the impact of budget policies on the poor.
The Way Forward
Social development work in the present time is much more complicated than it was earlier. The Globalisation of the economy has given new power to economic forces. Political forces are sometimes sidelined. A new kind of “homework” is needed on the part of those working with the people. We believe that the Rajasthan Budget Analysis is part of that needed homework. We have started it to strengthen the lobbying and advocacy work we have been doing with the people, and we also want the Centre to strengthen the work of other colleagues too. We do feel that the state and central governments have a responsibility to play a role to act in the interest of the people, including the poor.
We also feel that the poor—organised, aware, and armed with Budget Analysis material—can change the policies that keep them in a precarious position. And in the process, the People will be strengthened; will lose their fear of “big numbers” that they usually find in the Govt.’s budget books. Together, we will struggle for a better condition of employment, education, health services, environment, drinking water, agriculture of small farmers, tiny industries — a better life for all of Rajasthan’s citizens.
Copyright 2006. Budget Analysis Rajasthan Centre. All Rights Reserved
