CEHAT had organized a budget orientation workshop on 25-26th February 2004 in Mumbai for the activists of people’s organization & NGOs. This was done keeping in mind the election year & an opportunity to advocate for larger allocations for the social sector, including the health sector & also to create pressure from below. The objective was that the activists undertake a situation analysis of the budget & expenditure at the district & town level, identify gaps in resources allocation & get directly involved in budget advocacy in their constituencies along with other organizations at the local level.
On day one Dr. Amita Pitre gave brief introduction of CEHAT and the objective of the workshop. in the first session Dr. Jayant Lele Prof. of dept. of Political Economics, Queen’s University Canada spoke about importance of budget as an effective tool for detecting irregularities in govt. spending and to promote greater state accountability & responsiveness to the needs of the poor. He also presented a brief fiscal status of Maharashtra state & political dimensions in increasing & decreasing allocation to various departments. He also discussed the issues of the devolution of powers to local bodies wherein they had only transferred schemes with no financial power. Planning & resources mobilizations continue to remain centeralised. Smt. Sailee Bagkar gave presentation on Structure of Budget, Accounting structure & budget in the legislature. Smt. Beena Goithale presented the trend analysis of allocations & expenditure on School Education, Social Justice, EGS, Tribal Dept. & underutilizations of funds was highlighted. Ravi Duggal spoke on state health budget. He also explained the accounting structure of Health Dept. budget. Prashant Raymus presented the process of state planning & allocations to the district budget and different components of district budget documents. Lastly, participants highlighted that budget of local self govt. institutions hardly evoke any public debate & discussion. If the work & performance of schemes in the district is to be monitored by the civil society then budgets need to be studied.
The 2nd day sessions were basically training sessions in which participants were assigned the task of studying the budgets and preparing the trend of expenditure on various issues like health, Water supply, Tribals in respect to their districts. In the second session an action plan was decided, core group for budget analysis was formed and this group will undertake an exercise at the local level to assess the level of resources & it’s optimality in the selected facilities & organize/co-host the training workshop at regional level. Convenors for the forth-coming regional budget workshop are Shri.Kadudath Kambale, Marathwada; Shri.Rahul Bagde, Vidharbha; Shri.Vijay Valenju, Kokan; Shri.Vikram Kanhere, N.Maharashatra; Shri. Sampate Kale, W.Maharashatra. The State level coordinator for budget workshop will be facilitated by CEHAT .The tentative schedule for the regional budget workshop is in August in Marathawada & North Maharashatra and in the month of September in Vidharbha, Kokan & W.Maharashatra.
Representative of Action Aid & RSCD who were present in the session agreed to support this initiatives.
The participating organization/institutuions who agreed to take up the issues for the budget analysis & assess the facilities are listed in the chart below.
Participating
Organisation/Intitutions:
Organisation/Institution
|
Dist. |
Participants |
Issues |
mobilisation |
|
Van
Sampada Vanrai Parisar |
Nagpur |
Rahul
Bagade |
Health |
|
|
Aamhi
Amchya Arogya Sathi |
Gadchiroli |
Dr.
Rahul Bais |
Tribal/Health/Water |
30
Vill. |
|
SaiBaba
Gramin Vikas Sanstha |
Amravati |
Bandu
Ambatkar |
Food |
4
Vill. |
|
Dalit
Adhikar Andolan |
RSGVP Beed |
Satishkumar
Gaikwad |
Health/Water |
|
|
Marathwada
Kamgar Sangh (RDC) |
Beed |
Kadudath
Kamble |
Health/EGS/ Edu |
20
Vill. |
|
Janwadi
Mahila vikas Sanghatana |
Pune |
Shubha
Shamim |
Water/PDS |
50
Vill |
|
Dalit
Mahila Vikas Mandal |
Satara |
Geeta
Jagtap |
EGS/
Health |
30
Vill. |
|
NCAS |
Pune |
Nilesh,
Sampat kale & Bharti Takale |
Water |
5
Villages |
|
Savitribai
Phule Mahila Mandal |
Beed |
Manisha
Tokle |
EGS/Edu |
1
Tal. |
|
Halo
Medical Foundation |
Osmanabad |
Boddewar
Champat |
Health |
10
Vill. |
|
Institute
of Health Management |
Pune |
Sachin
Upadhye |
Health |
1
M.Corp. |
|
Janarth
Aadivasi vikas Sanstha |
Nandurbar |
Mottram
Thakare Vikram
Kanare |
Health |
40
villages |
|
Lokhit
samajik vikas sanstha |
Osmanabad |
Rajandra
Tate & Kamble
Appasaheb |
Health/Edu |
30
Vill., 3
Taluka |
|
Sankalp
manv vikas sanstha |
|
Visvanath
Gaware |
|
|
|
Manvi
Hakka Abhiyan (MHA) |
Hingoli |
Keshave
Aucher |
|
|
|
Marathwada
Sathmajoor Sang (MHA) |
|
|
EGS/Edu |
30
Vill. |
|
VACHA |
Mumbai |
Devshala
&Nisith Vora |
|
|
|
Sampark |
Mumbai |
Surendra
Domne |
|
|
|
Mahila
Rajsatta Andolan |
Kokan |
Vijay
Valenju |
Dailts/ Womens |
|
|
RSCD |
Navi
Mumbi |
Bhim
Raskar |
|
|
|
Pune
University |
Pune |
Prof.Nitin
Birmal |
|
|
1.As per above chart partners will attempt budget analysis at the local level & cover up with the issues of concern to address in budget advocacy process.
2.Referred workshop where above will be presented & further training would be provided to strengthen understanding of the budgets.
3.Targeting the winter seesion in Nagpur where revised estimates (supplementary budgets) are discussed.
4. Budget advocacy campaign state before March 2005 budget session.
Snaps of the Budget worksop