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Jharkhand announces its first outcome-based budget; assigns specific targets to various departments
Key highlights:
Focus on Adolescent health and nutrition:
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- Efforts to promote adolescent health in the state of Jharkhand
- Working towards reducing Anemia amongst the adolescent girls and young women
- Focus on improving comprehensive nutrition for adolescent girls and women in particular
- Improving Access to Education:
- Promoting access to digital education
- Reducing school-drop-out rates
- Efforts to increase higher education opportunitiesacross marginalized areas within Jharkhand
- Livelihood and Employability Creation:
- Skill development and creating employment opportunities for 5000 youth across Jharkhand
- Building Agency of Adolescent Girls:
- Efforts to encourage adolescent girls to take-up sports
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Ranchi, Jharkhand: 10 March , 2021 ( Odisha Samachar ): The 2021-22 Jharkhand State Budget was introduced in the house by Jharkhand’s Finance Minister Mr. Rameshwar Oraon on March 3rd 2021. The budget’sspecial emphasis on rural development, education and health sectors, and has reinforced the state’s commitment to strengthening welfare and development, especially for marginalized and vulnerable communities, in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.
The Finance Minister stipulated that the main focus of the state’s annual budget is to strengthen life and livelihood, and this was reflected in the focus of various programs announced that seek to address malnutrition among children and women and strengthen provisions for vulnerable groups through health, education, livelihood and sports schemes.With Jharkhand being a young state with over 50% of its population under the age of 24, addressing critical needs across health, education and employment for this population is crucial to ensuring the state is building back better in light of the COVID crisis.Some key budget announcements show promising signs of addressing pressingneeds of this population.
Partial results from the National Family Health Survey round 5 (NFHS-5) released earlier in December 2020 made some alarming revelations on the crisis of malnutrition. Even as all-India figures are awaited, the data from 22 states and Union Territories from Phase 1showsstagnation and in some states deterioration in many indicators related to nutritional status of women and children over the last 5 years. The announcements made as part of Jharkhand state budget show a much-needed focus and centering of adolescents’ and young women’s nutritional and dietary needs. Various schemes and campaigns such as SAAMAR (Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anaemia Reduction) that will focus on Malnutrition and Anaemia among children and women,“Sajha Poshan Karyakram” that will provide dietary allowances to adolescent girls and young women and the provision for “Dopahar ka Bhojan” in the form of 3 eggs per week for every child in the age group of 3 to 6 years are significant steps towards addressing malnutrition.
Along with nutrition, emphasis has also been placed on education, livelihood and sports through schemes and programs. The government has announced that it aims to ensure that all Panchayats become Zero Dropout Panchayats with the intermediate target of 1000 Panchayats being declared Zero Dropout Panchayats within the next fiscal year. Another significant stride in the area of education is the commitment to provide education in digital mode and smart classes in 4639 schools in the state. Schemes such asSANKALP (Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion) and PM Employment Generation Programme aim to empower youth to become self-dependent and to create employment opportunities for them. The establishment of Sindhu-Kanhu sports clubs in every village was also announced with the aim to encourage youth and sports activities. Additionally, the government is considering the proposal to establish Sports University in the state and is looking to sign a MoU with All India Football Federation to encourage women’s football.
These announcements make evident the state’s commitment to the welfare of adolescents and youth. Yet there continue to be areas that require greater attention and prioritization from the state to holistically addressing the needs of this demographic. A significant cut on budgetary allocations for Health and Family Welfare from 2020-21 to 2021-22 indicates the need to further fortify programs, schemes and service delivery that address key adolescent needs including access to contraception, mental health resources and other health and wellbeing services that are vital in the effort to combat urgent challenges like teenage pregnancies, child and early marriage.The NFHS-4 data shows that in Jharkhand every 8th adolescent girl between the ages of 15-19 is either pregnant or a teenage mother with 38 per cent of women aged between 20- 24 years married before 18 years of age.
Applying a demographic-focused approach to address adolescent and youth needs as reflected in budgetary allocations and decisions is critical to the future of Jharkhand’s progress. The recent announcements show promise and it is imperative that the state builds on this and continues to reinforce its commitment to empowering young people in order to secure the state’s future socio-economic prospects.
The 10to19 DasraAdolescents Collaborative, through its AbMeriBaari campaign,helpsadolescents with tools and channels to amplify their voices to decision makers. As we enter the 2nd year of this campaign, our focusis to end teenage pregnancy and spread awareness around Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR). This year’s campaign focuses on making solution-oriented and holistic efforts in this direction. Efforts like these are critical to enabling young people to access both physical and psychosocial support on their own terms as well as creating space for them to cope and heal moving forward.
To know more about our initiatives in the youth space, meet us here – 10to19 Community
For more details, please write to: | samiha@dasra.org | or | sukanksha@dasra.org |
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About Dasra:
Dasra is catalyzing India’s strategic philanthropy movement to transform a billion lives with dignity and equity. In 1999, Dasra was founded on the simple premise that supporting non-profits in their growth will scale their impact on the vulnerable lives they serve. Dasra accelerates social change by driving collaborative action and powerful partnerships with funders, social enterprises and other key stakeholders.
