Premium
Social Sector Priorities: An Analysis of Budgets and Expenditures in India in the 1990s
Author(s) -
Mooij Jos,
Dev S. Mahendra
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
development policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.671
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1467-7679
pISSN - 0950-6764
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8659.2004.00240.x
Subject(s) - poverty , government (linguistics) , context (archaeology) , economics , neglect , development economics , citizen journalism , christian ministry , economic growth , participatory budgeting , public economics , political science , politics , democracy , geography , linguistics , philosophy , nursing , law , medicine , archaeology
Many policies in India, including economic reform policies, are officially intended to alleviate poverty. But how committed is the Indian government? And to what? This article addresses India's social spending priorities over the past decade. Looking at the rhetoric in budget speeches, actual expenditure patterns and the process by which budgets are formulated, it finds a widened concept of poverty and a shift away from income and employment programmes to human development. The budget‐making process is not very participatory, and the role of the Finance Ministry has increased. Although the widening of the concept of poverty has positive aspects, within the overall context of structural adjustment it has facilitated the politically convenient neglect of other dimensions (income and employment).