Stakeholders give suggestions spanning wide-ranging
concerns in Social Sector from more funds for education, Health, Child
Protection, ICDS, Nutritional Security, Old age care to Capacity Building and
transparency in accounting among others.
The Union Minister of finance and Corporate Affairs Shri
Arun Jaitley today held consultations with the representatives from more than
twenty Social Sector Stakeholder organizations. The stakeholders represented
interests for Dalit human rights, Right to food, Right to Education, Budget and
Governance accountability, Child Protection concerns, senior citizens’ needs,
water conservation needs, nutrition and health concerns. FM agreed with
Stakeholders demand that Administrative Ministries should release Welfare
Schemes funds on priority to beneficiaries. Shri Jaitley said his Government is
fully committed in ensuring cost effective fund utilization of the Welfare Schemes
spanning the various Social Sector Ministries. The Finance Minister also
welcomed the suggestions of the representatives desiring greater allocation of
funds for Child protection schemes; Nutrition security concerns; more targeted
benchmarks to improve quality of Government funded schools; healthcare for the
elderly and incentives to ensure better employment conditions for working
mothers; streamlining the vocational training to boost employment; aid
paperless, presence less and cashless dealings with employers to ensure
transparency for employees and address needs of labour in the Informal Sector.
Along with the Finance Minister
Shri Arun Jaitley, the Pre-Budget Consultative Meeting with the representatives
of Social Sector Groups was also attended among others by Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Finance
Secretary, Shri Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary (Economic Affairs), Shri Rakesh Srivastava,
Secretary, Women & Child Development(WCD), Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Chief
Economic Adviser (CEA) and Ms. Kalpana, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour and
Employment.
The
representatives of various Social Sector Union Groups who attended the today’s
meeting included among others Ms. Bina Pallical, Director, Economic Rights,
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, Sree Harica, Programme Director, Mines
Minerals and People, Ms Kavita Srivastava, Convenor, Right to Food Campaign, Asadullah,
Programme Director, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, Shri
Ambarish Rai, Convenor, Right to Education Forum, Bidisha Pilla, CEO, Save the
Children, Shri Bipul Chatterjee, CUTS International, Ms. Yamini Aiyar, Research
Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Ms. Rukmini Banerjee, CEO, Pratham, Ms.
Mirai Chatterjee, Director of Social Security, Self Employed Women’s
Association (SEWA), Shri Mathew Cherian, CEO, Helpage India, Ms Komal Ganotra
from Child Rights and You (CRY), Shri Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease
Services Ltd., Anil Nair, Deputy Head, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship ad
Democracy, Bin Chacko, Manager, World Vision India, Shri V. R. Raman, Head of
Policy, WaterAid, Shri Subhas Singh, Chairman, National Confederation of Dalit
Organization (NACDOR), Sehjo Singh, Programme Director, Actionaid and Ms
Subhadra Menon from Kailash Satyarthi Childern’s Foundation.
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DSM/SBS/KA
