This year’s budget is no different. Though there is marginal decline in absolute numbers due to the difficult economic situation arising out of the pandemic, the budget presented by Tamil Nadu finance minister Planivel Thiaga Rajan on August 13 is no different in keeping up the trend. This is the first budget presented by the DMK government led by M K Stalin and being a revised budget it is valid for the remaining six odd months of the current financial year. An Interim budget was presented by the outgoing AIADMK government in February before state assembly elections in early April.

Another significant aspect of the budget is that for the first time the state presented a separate Agriculture budget, as 42 per cent of workers in the state are farmers and 58 per cent of rural households depended on farming. As agriculture being a state subject, this is another area where other states can take a leaf out of Tamil Nadu budget with growing resentment among farmers due to un-remunerative prices. The unabated farmers’ agitation in several parts of the country reflected this and there is some justification in their demand for guaranteed and statutory minimum support price for farm produce.

School Education is accorded the highest importance in the revised Tamil Nadu Budget, with an overall allocation of Rs. 32,599.54 crore. The emphasis will be on ensuring that no one is left behind. Even the 0.75 per cent dropout rate at the primary level in the year 2019-20 will be eliminated and 100 per cent net enrolment in schools will be ensured. Tamil Nadu is a leading State in Higher Education with a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 51.4% compared to the all India average of 27.1% and a student: teacher ratio of 17. The allocation for school education is significant as the state’s annual budget is surging towards Rs three lakh crore. It could be higher from next financial year when the new DMK government starts presenting a full year budget.

The high budget spent on school education is nothing new. Right from the introduction of the noon meal scheme in Tamil Nadu by the late Chief Minister M G Ramachandran in the 1980s, the allocation for school education has been steadily increasing. This has helped in better skilling of workers, women empowerment and improved health of children in the state. This had helped the state reap the benefits of a higher percentage of skilled workers a couple of decades later apart from improving literacy rate. Tamil Nadu is next only to Kerala in literacy rate and health care.

Tamil Nadu continues to be a leading State in key health indicators like Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) which is 15 and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) which is 60 in 2018, according to the revised budget. In fact the average spending on health has been much above national average for quite some time in the annual budget. It is heartening to know that many poorer states too have stepped up their spending on education and health. With the noon meal scheme becoming universal all over the country for almost a decade now, dropout rates in schools are falling and enrolment is increasing particularly in north Indian states as well. As Tamil Nadu and a few other states were reaping the benefit after 2-3 decades of higher investment in these two areas, many of the poorer states too will see tangible improvement in higher skill development health care in a decade or so.

China, South Korea and several South East Asian countries, the so-called Asian miracle countries witnessed high growth rate and industrial development because of the availability of skilled manpower when their economies were opened up due to higher investments in education and health in the 1960s and 1970s. Many countries in the region reaped the benefits when the economic liberalization process started in many countries in the early 1980s, particularly after the dismantling of the Soviet Union. The countries which were laggards were those which had not invested heavily in education and health care

Even within India the states that developed rapidly were those which had done better in education and health care in the decades before the opening up in 1991. It is unfortunate that six per cent of GDP spent on education envisaged by P V Narasimha Rao as Human Resources Minister in its new education policy during the Rajiv Gandhi era is yet to be realized. It has not happened three and a half decades after he had proposed. Nor has the proposal to spend 3 per cent of GDP on healthcare has not happened. But in recent years many states have rightly stepped up spending on education and health.

With Covid pandemic exposing the health care deficiencies in practically all the states, there is a growing realization both at the centre and states to step up health spending. Job losses had prompted the state and central government to look at improvement on skilling and education more seriously. These are welcome developments and fruits of it can only be in the medium to long term. As the balance of payment crisis led to the opening up of the economy, the Covid pandemic is certainly an eye opener for the centre and states to massively step up investment in education and healthcare. (IPA Service)