In totality, it's average budget: SOS Children's Villages of India

By Sudarshan Suchi, Secretary-General, SOS Children's Villages of India

"It's heartening to know that FM presented the budget keeping three important themes in mind, viz aspirational India, economic development and caring society. However in totality, it was an average budget. Talking about the social development sector, the overall trend of the budget is unlocking more potential investments in the charity sector’s development. Secondly, a few positive steps in education and conscious efforts in healthcare were highlighted. The consolidation of all these steps will support the expectations of the social development sector."

Suchi added, "Both for aspirational India and economic development children are the foundation. And for them, caring society is need of the hour. Thus, the holistic development of children can't be ignored. And here, the underprivileged children form the major chunk of the population. 20 million children don't get adequate parental care today and this number will increase to 24 million by 2022. So focus on these children is of paramount importance for the country's progress.

The allocation of INR 35,600 for nutritional related programmes for children welfare and equipping 6 lakh women Anganwadi workers with smartphones for nutritional updates, isn't enough. But whatever is provided now, needs to be properly utilised with a strict mechanism in place.

When we talk about a caring society, SOS children's villages of India has a proven model to care for abandoned children. Here, such kind of social development organisations needs enough support from the government and other stakeholders."

Sudarshan Suchi, Secretary-General, SOS Children's Villages of India