Pathey Trust’s

Activity Report for

2013-14

Working Office

Phone: +91-79-26561694

Website : www.pathey.in

Regd Office: 7, Mangaldeep Flats, Near Parikshit Bridge, P.O Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad-380027

Pathey Budget Center 3, Aishwarya Apartment,

Near Sardar Pratima, Stadium Road Ahmedabad-380014

Email : Patheya.budget@hotmail.com / info@pathey.in

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Pathey Trust’s Activity Report

September, 2013 to March, 2014 Back ground: Pathey……. Food for thought on Struggle Journey for Social Justice

About Pathey:- Pathey was registered in year 1993 and has pursued the pioneering work of Budget analysis, Goveranace and Advocacy work to further the cause of vulnerable and deprived sections of the society, to ensure Social Justice and Development and to create a debate over the financial allocations for the weaker sections of society and its impact over the development process. Pathey has been analysing the state, district, tehsil and national budget. Pathey analysis is focused upon the issues of Adivasis, Dalits, women, children, people with disability, NT-DNT, workers of unorganized sector, and other backwards classes. Pathey also works for capacity building of elected members and members of civil society organization for budget literacy. Pathey help by providing budgetary information to the members of civil society for strengthening their advocacy work. It organizes the training programmes for the elected representatives at (Panchayat level) to make them aware on financial allocation and spending, so that the village level elected representative can make budget for their villages and also ensure benefits of schemes to their village citizens from various schemes. One of the objectives of Pathey is to be a resource center for elected members, civil society, issue based organizations and networks, journalists, and academicians for providing information on budget, policy analysis, governance related issues for wider discussions and application of resources for change. Vision To ensure social justice and development, and to foster debates over financial allocations of the government for the poor and marginalized communities through, Empowerment, Capacity building, Budget Research and Advocacy process for transparent, accountable governance. Mission Creating multiple centers for Demystifying state budgets to facilitate understanding of public finance from the perspective of vulnerable section of society like (Adivasis, Dalits, women and children and disadvantageous communities.) and facilitate advocacy process for right based policy by sharing research knowledge, capacity building of people for seeking accountable governance. Strategy Pathey is Budget analysis and Research based advocacy and educational organization engaging at various levels with stake holders like elected representatives, policy makers, civil society groups, voluntary organizations, academicians, communities and media through dissemination, education and capacity building. The interventions are focused around empowerment, social justice, and good governance for the vulnerable section of society.

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Pathey Trust’s Annual Report -2013-14

Annual report is an expression of activities and impact of work over one year. There have been so many changes around us at macro and micro level and the changes also affect our work as well. We are also making efforts to make changes at policy level and demanding the state to allocate more and better implementation of outlay. During the year, Pathey brought the issues of governance and equity on the surface for wider discussion through its newsletters, budget write-ups, and capacity building training programmes and through charter of demands submitted to the state government or by providing information to concerned people, who contacted us as an individual or institutional basis. Gujarat state had assembly election and the BJP the ruling party came back to govern the state and there will be Parliamentary election in the beginning of New Year. The global political and economic events have significant impact on the national and sub-national socio-economic situation, and people’s movements and their aspiration and expectations have also compelling pressure on the policy and governance at national and state level, which is a positive side, and as a result, we have progressive right based legislations in the recent past, conferring several revolutionary rights to the citizens. The implementation of right based legislations requires public finances, which is collected from the citizens. We are at transitional point, we witness that state has withdrawn from its basic obligations and wants to shed more responsibilities and replace by market and at the same time people’s movements and political compulsions compels it to commit for basic minimum like education, food security, health care and social security……but the translation of commitments should be reflected by financial outlay for implementation with accountable mechanism. To bring the positive change, Pathey Trust has been working in collaborative manner with national and state level organizations on various issues of budget and governance through budget analysis, research publication and dissemination, organizing people’s conventions, and capacity building of members of civil society, communities, engaging with elected members, policy makers, academicians, and media. During the last year, along with regular activities, Pathey also took new initiative by taking research study on the GBS (Gender Budget Statement of Gujarat state) to assess state’s commitment for gender responsive budget. Pathey also conducted the District level budget tracking of SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), fund tracking up to SMC level (School Management Committee). To strengthen the right to food awareness campaign at the field level and monitor the implementation of existing food security schemes, Pathey‘s also joined National RTF (Right to Food) campaign and conducted the field based survey on malnourishment among children below 6 years covered under the ICDS(Integrated Child Development Service).

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Our awareness creation efforts have motivated right based civil society to look the issue from public finance point of view. One of our demands for raising minimum wages of agricultural workers led hike of wages of agricultural labourers from Rs.120 to Rs.150 per day. The following is brief report of activities pursued by Pathey during last year (April, 2013 to March, 2014). Budgetary data entry for research and analysis work:

Budget analysis and research is a continuous process oriented laborious work, since state’s budget presentation is a regular event for running the affairs of governance continuously, Every year the state government comes with new budget with bigger financial figures for running the state’s governance for the citizens of the state by taxing them for providing certain services. As the budget analysis and advocacy requires constant updating the budgetary figures and policy decisions and implementation as well, during the first two months, we entered the budgetary data from 32 budget books for all the departments for year 2013-14. The up-dating of data helps in creation of data base for research analysis work for preparing reports, trainings, advocacy and sharing with issue based groups.

Training at Panchayat level decision makers and citizens:

Pathey conducted training of Gram Panchayat members in Vijaynagar (Sabarkantha), and Wadhwan (Surendernagar) district. The majority of participants were Adivasis and Dalits. The training workshops at Panchayat level were conducted for decesion makers, citizens and social workers for understanding the process of Panchayat Budget and goveranance at Panchayat level. The objectives of training of Panchayat representatives was to sensitize the panchayat representatives and gram sabha members about their local goveranace, roles and responsibilities of elected members and also to make orientation towards generating revenues from various sources like local taxaions, grants taluka, district, MGNREGS, 13th Finance Commission, MLA/MPLAD grants and local donations. In these meetings, the participants, particularly gram sabha members are also provided information about RTI(Right to Information), welfare schemes for schedule tribes and schedule castes, RTE (Right to Education), education for girl child. The participants were motivated to monitor the services at ICDS centres, Mid day Meal, as their children access these services.

The participants are helped in filing the application form to access benefits of welfare schemes meant for the poor people and disadvantegeous groups.

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During the last year, ten (10) training workshops were organised and were attended by 454 participants.

Training with Elected members Panchayati Raj Institutions: Sr. Place Date No. of Participants 1 Matru Chayya , Balasinhor 4th May, 2013 45 2 Godhar, Santrampur 22nd May, 2013 42 3 Khedbrahma, Sabarkantha 24th May, 2013 64 4 Jasdan Rajkot 31st, May, 2013 81 5 Vijayanagar, Sabarkantha 30th October, 2013 33 6 Patdi, Surrendernagar 31st October, 2013 29 7 Vankad, Vijaynagar 21st November, 2013 38 8 Wadwan, Surrendernagar 22nd November, 2013 19 9 Biladia, Sabarkantha 7th December,2013 48 10 Balasinhor, Kheda 7th January, 2014 55 Total 454 Capacity building of members of civil society:

The budget analysis is one of the critical tools for civil society organizations and other public-cause advocates as its use is productive and impactful. As a tool it can

move through issues relating to different sectors, and it can be a powerful instrument for social activists involved in mobilizing people, therefore building capacity of social activists is very important. We organized capacity building workshops with grass root level organizations focused upon issues of schedule tribes, schedule castes, and backward

communities. The basic aim of conducting training for capacity building of members of civil society is to orient the members towards budgetary part of the state government for the issues, they have been working, build up their capacity to understand financial numbers and correlate these numbers with policy, and

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development programmes. The Capacity building and training programmes consist of theoretical aspects of budget making with definitions, codes in expenditures and revenue side of the state, hierarchy of codes (Major Heads to Object Heads), Plan and Non-Plan expenditure, Revenue and Capital expenditure, loans and advances, Charged and Voted expenditure. All terms are correlated with previous and present year’s numbers and data. The expenditures are correlated with prevailing socio-economic conditions of the state. We conducted the capacity building training on budget for field staff and volunteers of KMVS (Kutchh Mahila Vikas Sanstha), Kutchh district. This training was for the members of SETU (which was formed after Kutchh earthquake for rehabilitation of earth quake affected communities and regions). The 2nd workshop was organized with civil society members of Surendernagar district, mainly engaged in implementing the government projects and awareness generation. The other workshop was conducted for the field based partners of AAI (Actionaid India) in Ahmedabad, the participants were engaged in field based activities, empowering and awareness generation of communities. The participants were oriented towards budgetary process and SCP (Special Component Plan for Schedule Caste) communities. The participants were also made aware about social security schemes for workers of unorganized sector, women, and schedule castes people. Pathey also organized workshop for “National Food Security act and budget: Myth and Reality” at 5th National Convention for Right to Food, on 2nd March held at DSK (Dalit Shakti Kendra), Sanand, Ahmedabad, which was attended by around 30 participants. Promotion of Budget Literacy work and Capacity building for members of Civil Society at district level Sr. Place Date No. of

Participants 1 Vadodara 17th September, 2013 51 2 Bhuj, Kutchch (SETU) 29/30/November,2013 30 3 Surrendernagar 24th December,2013 47 4 AAI’s Partners 26/27 December,2013 23 5 National Food Security act

and Budget: 2nd March, 2014 30

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Myth and Reality 6 SAATH, 22nd March, 2014 20 Total 201 Training for Urban Local Bodies Budget for Field based workers of “SAATH”

SAATH working, with urban poverty issues, housing, and slum networking approached Pathey to conduct orientation workshop for field based workers, who are engaged in community mobilization in slums and other areas. Pathey prepared training module focusing on budget literacy, budget formulation process, and budgetary trends at macro level of Gujarat state, Department wise Plan and Non-plan budget, Budgetary trends of Department of Urban Development and Urban Housing for 2014-15, Revenue receipt and expenditure for AMC (Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation) for 2014-15 with previous years’ trends. It was decided to do budget analysis of other Municipal corporations as well to build up joint strategy for influencing the local bodies’ budget for the urban poor and monitor the budget expenditure.

Budget Advocacy Workshop and Submission of Charter of Demands:

Citizens’ participation in budget making process is very important in present era, as the citizens pay the taxes to the state. The citizens too have certain aspirations and expectations from the state government’s budget for better services. The civil society members have specific concerns of social and economic development of the disadvantageous groups; the civil society members have vast work experience from the field, therefore, they have better knowledge of the ground realities and concerns for the social justice and development of disadvantageous groups. Pre-budget consultation with civil society provides platform to raise the budget demands for next year’s budget.

During the last year we organized two pre-budget workshops to generate awareness among the civil society members about Pre-budget demands and also to elicit their views on the issues, so that budgetary demands could be generated for the year 2014-15. We organized workshop at Rajkot for the civil society members of the Rajkot city neighboring districts and briefed the participants about budget terminology and presentations on schedule castes issues, workers of unorganized sector, people with disability, children and women.

The 2nd Pre-budget workshop was organized at Vedachi, Tapi district on 15th November, 2013; the workshop was attended by 60 participants. At this place all the participants were Adivasis. The charter of demands for next year’s budget 2014-15 was prepared compassing issues concerning Adivasis, Dalits, women

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and children, Handicapped, workers and others. The charter of demands was submitted to concerned Department’s minister and Secretariat. The Detailed charter of demands is available on Pathey’s website, which was submitted to the state government and various ministries concerned, responsible for decision making and implementation.

Pre Budget Advocacy Workshops Sr. Workshop Place Date Participants 1 PBI

(People’ Budget Initiative) Ahmedabad 5th October, 2013 123

2 Gujarat State Pre-budget Rajkot 28th October, 2013 25 3 Gujarat state Pre-budget Tapi-Surat 15th November, 2013 60

Based on the discussion by the participants at three places, we prepared comprehensive Charter of demands, for the development, empowerment and welfare of citizens like children, women, and schedule castes and schedule tribes of state. The charter also demanded that the state to make special efforts for the welfare of vulnerable social groups including people with disabilities, workers of unorganized sector, de-notified tribes, other backward communities, widows and citizens in geographically backward regions. The charter of demands was submitted to the concerned departments’ ministers, Principal Secretary, commissioners and under secretary to budget division of the respective department.

The charter of demands was also sent to all the Member of Legislative Assembly asking them to submit the same demands to the state government. We sent the charter of demands to 150 MLAs; some of the MLAs contacted us for more details. As the state government presented Vote-on–Account for appropriation of budget for 4 months, and the full fledge budget will be presented in July. We will be able to assess how far the state government has responded to Pathey’s charter of demands.

PBI (People Budget Initiative) Regional Convention on “People’s Expectations from the New Union Government on Budgetary Priorities”

Pathey Trust, as member of PBI (People’s Budget Initiative), also network and participate in the national events for influencing budget processes and implementation of flagship programmes. Pathey organized West zone regional convention for promoting the application of budget work among the various stake holders concerned with governance and accountability of government and

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also facilitating the process of generating expectation and demands from the New Union government.

PBI (People’s Budget Initiative) West zone convention on “People’s Expectations from the New Union Government on Budgetary Priorities” in Ahmedabad on 5th October, 2013, having participants from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Goa. The convention was attended by around 123 participants from grass root activists, women activists, civil society members, academicians, students, community members, trade unionists and media people. The participants deliberated on the wider issues being faced by the community members and general citizens. The subject experts provided comprehensive understanding about the prevailing political and economic conditions in the country in background of Parliamentary elections just six months time interval so that the participants could debate and express their concerns in the demand format, which would be presented at culmination of national convention to be held at National capital.

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Pathey gave presentations on various budget and Policy Issues:

Pathey has special focus on social sectors – such as, development of Education, Health, women’s empowerment, and Water & Sanitation, in its work on Gujarat state Budget. Pathey was approached and invited by various groups to give detailed case study and presentation on the various themes, as this also helps in promoting the budget analysis and its applications for understanding and advocacy work among the civil society members. As Pathey with its research and publication work has been highlighting the development issues in its Newsletter publication “Pathey Samachar”, which in way also bring demands from various organizations for providing detailed perspectives of policy implementation. The following is list of presentations/case study prepared for members of civil society.

Invited by Other organizations Sr. Organization Place Subject Date 1 Viklap Ahmedabad Gujarat Budget

with TSP 24/4/2013

2 BMS Labour Budget

MGLI, BMS Budget for social security for workers

29/4/2013

3 NCDHR NCDHR, BSC Status of SCP in Gujarat

30/4/2013

4 WBI(World Bank Institute)

Kathmandu NEPAL

****Sharing of Experiences

13 to 16, May, 2013

5 NCL, BMS NCL for Labour

Budget for un-organized Labour

7/6/2013

6 CBGA SSA, for PBI SSA findings 24/10/2013 7 PUCL CAG CAG Audit 12/12/2013 8 OXFAM India Oxfam India

for WCD Budget for social security of women

26th February,2014

*****Sharing of experiences

1. Story from the field: Budget Analysis through Social Inclusion lens 2. How To Read The Budget

PRACTICAL: Exploring Nepal Budget data sources

3. Linking analysis to Advocacy

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New Initiative:

Pathey has developed expertise in state budget analysis and conducted trainings for many organizations for state level budget analysis work. We have done research and analysis work on TASP (Tribal Area Sub Plan), SCP (Special Component Plan for Schedule Caste), Child budgeting and others. GRB (Gender Responsive Budget) is a new area of work for us, as we have not attempted in systematic manner, with the support of NFI and UN-Women, we developed capacity to conduct the GBS(Gender Budget Statement) study and also capacity building of others. We also developed capacity district level budget tracking study and monitoring of ICDS with empirical data collection.

1. GRB (Gender Responsive Budget) Initiative: The Gujarat Gender Budget Statement: Budgeting for Women Pathey with the support of NFI (National Foundation for India) and UN-Women did a study on Gujarat Gender Budget Statement. The study focused upon Gender budget of 100% women specific schemes from 13 departments. The study found that all the departments do not make women specific allocation for addressing the women’s concerns like protection, security, welfare, and empowerment. The findings of study were shared with concerned departments. A charter of demand along with template for gender budget was also submitted to the various department of Gujarat state, demanding that the state should issue the GBS, and departments should come up with new schemes with higher allocation to address the women’s concerns. 2. Training for GRB (Gender Responsive Budget) in Gujarat: One day orientation programme on GRB (Gender Responsive Budget) was organized at Baroda with local collaboration of Sahiyar “Stree Sangathan”. The workshop was conducted to orient the participants about GBS (Gender Budget Statement) and its Responsiveness to address gender issues focusing women’s concerns, besides, orient the participants about importance of budget analysis in context of wider feminist movement for gender equality.

Subject Date No. of Participants GRB Training with civil society members of South and Eastern Gujarat at Baroda

17th September, 2013

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Gender Budget Training in Baroda

The findings of Pathey’s study on Gender Budget statement was shared with participants in details followed by discussion. At the end of workshop, a charter of demands for higher allocation, better utilization of budget and budget allocation for the new schemes for empowerment, protection, social security, health care and education was prepared to submit to the state department.

District Level Budget Tracking of SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) in Sabarkantha District of Gujarat state Pathey as member PBI (People’s Budget Initiative) actively participate at regional and national research and advocacy work for governance and accountability issues. Pathey conducted the study on District level budget tracking under SSA, as part of national level study on Central government’s Flagship programmes. We tracked

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fund flow for SSA from Central level to state to District to BRC (Block Resource Centre) to SMC (School Management Committee) with date of issue of funds and utilization at each level. The study also captured financial outlay and expenditure under the various components under SSA. The study also captured that the funds transfer from the central government was delayed and released on the last day of the year ending. Whereas at district level and BRC(Block Resource Centre), the fund utilization was as per the allocations for various reasons. At SMC level, the fund utilization was done properly. The study also made suggestions based findings and focused group discussions held with various stake holder like SMC’s members, school teachers and staff members of BRC, CRC, District and state level officials. Survey on Malnourishment: Extent of Malnutrition amongst Women and Children in Gujarat Pathey as member of ASAA (Anna Suraksha Adhikar Abhiyaan is a group of activists, CBO’s and NGOs working on the issue of right to food through a much broader lens of inter sectionality of livelihoods, health, and nutrition since the last ten years) participated in conducting the field based survey on malnourishment among the children. As member of ASAA, it was realized that “Over the last few years, the focus has been on addressing children’s health and nutrition under three years and several organizations working across Gujarat found resonance with cause. The synergy in the causes led to the need and conceptualization of a study on the extent of malnutrition in the state. Pathey’s two field based workers from Adivasi and Dalit communities, in Vijaynagar block and Surrendernagar district participated in the survey work in their respective areas. Over the period of 1st January to 17th January 2014, Anna Suraksha Adhikar Abhiyaan, a consortium of NGOs focused on the right to food, carried out an in depth study on the extent of malnutrition amongst women and children in Gujarat. The study, carried out over 20 districts across the state, focused on High Priority Talukas, urban slums, and community’s home to migrant workers, the findings of the survey report was released in the curtain raiser event of 5th National Right to Food Convention held in Ahmedabad on 1st to 3rd March, 2014, the survey report is available on Pathey’s website.

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Pathey as member of RTF (ASAA Ann Surkhsha Adhikar Abhiyan) Gujarat also joined the field based survey in two villages one each in adivasi in Vijaynagar and Dalit area- Alampura area in Patdi block. All the children registered at ICDS (Anganwadi ) centre were weighed The finding of survey is that the malnourishment among the children is very high “In contrast to state data claiming a drastic reduction of malnutrition over the last decade to 27%, this study, finds the rate of child malnutrition at 43.9%, showing little reduction from former malnutrition rates. Amongst children identified as ST, the study finds a malnutrition rate of 55%, mirroring Gujarat’s rate of malnutrition when it held the highest rate in the country. Among newborn children, ages 0 to 6 months, 15.8% were found to be severely malnourished, implying severe undernourishment of the mother as well and ensuring problems in the future growth and development of the child. Additionally, 20% of children ages 6 months to 3 years, and 18.9% of children ages 3 to 5 years, were found to be severely malnourished, soaring above state claims.” Representation before HLC (High Level Committee) for tribal socio-economic development indicators: Pathey submitted suggestions to the Prime Minister appointed HLC(High Level Committee) chaired by Dr. Virgenous Xaxa for Socio-economic, health and educational status of the Tribal Communities in India. The HLC visited Gujarat on 3rd March, 2014. The charter of demands is available on Pathey’s website, in which Pathey had suggested to strengthen the existing legal framework with proper implementation as “The socio-economic conditions of the tribal communities depend upon the governance and accountability of implementation of existing policy framework and state’s acts and laws for the very purpose of improving their soc-economic conditions and bringing them at par with the mainstream society. The existing policy frame work and legal apparatus needs to be further strengthened and amended to get the desire result for the welfare and development of tribal communities and schedule areas. There is already existing framework like TSP/TASP, FRA (Forest Right Act), PESA and many others. Here are some of the suggestions to improve the implementation mechanism to achieve the desired result in the schedule areas”. Publication and Dissemination of Budget Literature:

Pathey has been creating awareness about budget and policy for the poor and disadvantegous people through various publications like Budget Newsletter,

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Booklets on welfare schemes for Adivasis and Dalits, Panchayat Training literature, Website, and manual for promoting transparency at grass root level. Pathey Samachar (Budget Newsletter):

In last year Pathey has published six issues of Newsletter entitled “Pathey Samachar”, providing information on various topics related to budget, policy, social and economic development of state, budget expenditure for education, women component plan in Gujarat, Infant Mortality Rate at National level, Payment of wages to casual labourers at national level, Government resolution on decentralized grant to backward blocks, state share from 13th Finance Commission. The Budget Newsletter also carried information about Pathey’s activities like, advocacy workshop held, charter of demands submitted to the state government for better allocation and expenditure for the year 2014-15, particulalry for schedule castes, schedule tribes, women and children, more tarnsparency in state budget. Publication of Pathey Samachar during the Year Sr. Edition number Date of Publication No. of copies posted 1 19 April- May, 2013 862 2 20 June-July, 2013 870 3 21 August-September, 2013 830 4 22 October-November, 2013 897 5 23 December-January, 2014 1073 6 24 February-March, 2014 872 Total 5404 The newsletter is bimonthly published. We published around 1000 copies of each edition. The Pathey Samachar was sent to around 850 people and organisations, comprising Journalists,members of civil society, grass root level organisations, academic institutions, Researchers and some of the government’ offices. The copy of Pathey samachar is also uploaded on Pathey’s website for wider circulation. We also sent the copy of Pathey Samachar by email to many individuals, who have asked for soft copy. The newsletter also carries headlines in English. We have

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been seeking feedback from the readers and we have received very positive response from our readers and its content has been reproduced by some of others organisations and journalists also use information pertaining to budget from Pathey samachar and make their articles and publish in dailies without giving due acknowledgemnet to Pathey samachar. Thematic Reports: During the last year we published one thematic report on “The Budget for Health care in Gujarat” besides, we also publish report on study on Gender Responsive Budget supported by NFI and UN-Women “The Gujarat Gender Budget Statement: Budgeting for Women” and report on District Budget Tracking for SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan). Besides, five papers were also written on the following themes

1. Status of SCP in Gujarat for budget track CBGA 2. Role of CAG for good governance. 3. Implementation of ICDS through CAG lens for 5th National Convention

for RTF 4. Gujarat Government Spending on Social Security and Welfare of

Women: An analysis of spending by the Department of Women & Child Development for OXFAM India Trust

5. A brief write up on Budget for NT-DNT for VSSM (Vicharta Samudaay Samarthan Manch).

Updating of Pathey websites:

Pathey website is updated at the regular interval and all the literature produced is uploaded on pathey’s website (www.pathey.in) to disseminate its information through web to the people, members of civi society and organisations, journalists and other who seek budgatry information concerning Gujarat. Besides, website also has information about Pathey’s activities. The website has been created to increase the outreach of Pathey work and reaseach on budget and policy and also to provide information through web. We have uploaded information in user friendly

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approach, all the Ministrial department’s budget with five years’ data have been uploaded in XL format. Pathey’s prepared budget discussions, which were shared with elected members and media people have been uploaded. The newsletters are also uploaded as and when published. The following is monthly history of web site visited by users.

Engagement with Media:

Media people have always used Pathey budget data for writing their articles for reporting, they refer Pathey data, during the Budget session. The Journalists contacts Pathey to get previous years’ data to know the trends under particular social service or sector. During the last year, many journalists have used Pathey’s information for the write ups. The print media and many other newsletters have reprinted the budget studies from Pathey’s Newsletter “Pathey Samachar”. Thus budget analysis issues are brought on surface, in this way as well, the budget work is promoted.

Gujarat state’s internal debt to reach Rs.1.85 lakh crore

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Government’s 18 Department could not utilize allocated budget outlay

The state budget must address the Senior citizens’ issues

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An engagement with elected members during brief Vote-on Account Session:

State government presented the Vote-on Account instead of regular full fledge budget, as the parliament elections are to be held in April, May, 2014. The state government convened a brief session of six days to pass the vote on account for the appropriation of financial budget for next four months till June, 2014. Pathey prepared LAQs to distribute among the elected members, since the session was very brief, therefore, we will have the same exercise in June, 2014, when the assembly house meets for one month for passing the full fledge budget along with discussion on demands.

During this brief session, we collected the budget books. We also wrote brief comment on vote on account budget and also issued comments on under utilization of budget outlay under SCP (Special Component Plan) and each department. We also prepared a brief note on supplementary budget and distributed among MLAs for discussion. The brief write-up was distributed among all the elected members for their comprehensive understanding.

Programmes attended by Pathey Team members During the last year, Pathey team members have attended various programmes for capacity building, orientation or sharing organized by other organizations as shown below table Sr. Date/Month/ Subject Organized by Attended by 1 8/9 April, 2013 GRB orientation NFI, Delhi Mahender and Urvashi

Patel 2 8 to 10 May, 2013 National

meetings of Budget Groups

CRSD, Hyderabad

Mahender and Natwerbhai

3 17th June to 20th June, 2013

Capacity building on Rural Development

SIRD, Gujarat state

Ms. Urvashi Patel

4 26th June, 2013 Impact of NREGA

SIRD, Regarding MNREGA and its impact.

Natwerbhai Vegda

5 21, 22 & 23rd , 2013 Briefing on District level budget tracking

CBGA, Delhi Mahender & Mahendra Makwana

6 30th August, 2013 GRB sharing BARC, Rajasthan

Ms. Urvashi and Natwerbhai

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7 28th September, 2013 Signature Campaign for RTI

Janpath & MAGP, Ahmedabad

Natwerbhai Vegda

8 25 October, 2013 PBI’s national convention for next year ‘s budget from New Union Government

PBI CBGA, Delhi

Mahender

9 18/19, November, 2013

Delhi GRB in India and select states.

NFI, Delhi Mahender and Urvashi Patel

10 11th to 12th February,2014

National Budget Group Meet

NFI and ISD, Trivendrum

Mahender and Natwerbhai

11 1st to 3rd March, 2014 5th National convention on RTF

ASAA & RTF Ahmedabad

Ms. Geetaben , Danabhai Vaghela, Pratap Solanki, Mahender and Natwerbhai

Field based activities: We have appointed two persons from the Adivasi and Dalit community member to generate awareness among the communities about the TASP (Tribal Area Sub Plan) and SCP (Special Component Plan), besides, helping the community members to access the entitlements under these component plans. The field based workers are also engaged in monitoring the implementation of programmes like ICDS, MGNREGA and gradually will track the expenditure under other programmes. The field based workers also help in strengthening the process of Panchayat budget at Gram sabha level, by guiding the elected member to select the development work which provides services to women, like budgeting for drinking water, sanitation, pucca roads, street lights etc. The field workers also mobilize community members for consultation like PBI’s or state level. The field workers have generated awareness about application of RTI (Right to Information), accessing the work under MNREGA, entitlement under PDS (Public Distribution System). The awareness about these programmes is generated among the youth and women for better implementation of programmes, where the government is allocating budgetary provisions. The Impact of Survey on behaviors of mothers: The Children at Soumaya village ICDS center were surveyed, during the survey, women (mothers) were taught about the importance of ICDS service for overcoming malnourishment and mother should inspect the services. After the

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survey the woman members now themselves monitor the services at ICDS center, the service at ICDS has improved, earlier service was irregular, the children’s weight is registered to find out the malnourished children. Those six children, who were found malnourished during the survey, have been referred to admit in PHC center for treatment to overcome the malnourishment. The women in surrounding villages also want their children weighed at ICDS center to know the status of malnourishment among the kids.

The awareness about provisions of MGNREGA, has led many village women asking for work under MGNREGA, similarly awareness about RTI has also developed interest among the village people to file the application for seeking information for their housing schemes.

Awareness about SCP has created keen interest among the village people seeking information for development work under their respective villages. The people are now talking about community development work under SCP and want to monitor and track the work.

Some people have started participating in Gramsabha meeting and asking development work in the village Panchayat. People have started writing their demands at Block and district level.

In Surendernagar, a network of organizations is forming for expenditure tracking, asking for information from district officials about development work.

Some Achievements:

• Patheya’s consistent efforts have motivated many civil society organizations to look at the government’s budget and build perspective in their advocacy with the issues as well. There are several rights based groups, who have approached Pathey to orient the staff members the budget analysis work for monitoring and tracking the status of social justice.

• The Finance Minister Budget speech for 2014-15 had narration about transparency study, which anchored by CBGA, thus efforts were recognized.

• During the state assembly’s budget session, Pathey has been able to articulate the write ups giving emphasis on marginal sections, unorganized sectors workers, women, children, Adivasis and Dalits, Pathey has also provided comparative development indicators to highlight the delivery of governance for the critical social development sector like status of education and health.

• The journalists covering assembly session have also used Pathey’s write ups as reference material for their newspaper reporting and have also given this in feedback as well, The media reporting on budget has also further disseminated budget analysis work deeper. The research articles or budget related case study published in Pathey’s Newsletter “Pathey

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Samachar” has been receiving good response. Many of the articles are reprinted in the newsletters of other organizations; many of the articles are printed in the newspapers with acknowledgement, which shows the relevance.

• The pre-budget consultation was widely attended by several issue based organizations to participate in formulating the charter of demands for the next year budget; this indicates the other civil society organizations interest in the budget work.

• The state government announced to revise the minimum wages for agricultural workers from Rs. 120/day to Rs.150/day, thus the workers at MGNREGA work will benefit with enhanced wages. Though the demand was to make it Rs.230/ a day.

Future Challenges:

There are several challenges, that organization is faced with, some of the challenges are institutional administrative governance, which governing body should put for implementation.

• There has been time-lag in research work and publication for dissemination. • We have not been able to have constant contacts with legislatures except assembly

session, which we need to cultivate continuous relation with them. • We also need bring focus on local urban bodies’ budget and engagement with Municipal

members and executive along with community’s orgaisations. • Mobilizing funds for budget work is also a challenge. • The technology is changing very rapidly every day and the budget work being time

consuming, we will have to find ways and means to keep pace with changing scenario.

Way Forward

In Last four years, Pathey Trust (Pathey Budget Center) has travelled the journey as an independent organization and has established its identity. It has explored many new themes and also partnered with national, local and issue based coalitions and networks, which was not the case earlier.

Pathey Budget Center will carry forward the state level budget and policy analysis work for demanding governance, accountability and participation for disadvantageous and poor people.

Pathey will deepen budget work in urban local bodies and pitch for inclusive and participatory planning in urban bodies.

As we have already started taking budget work at field level with budget tracking of SSA and malnourishment study, we will be conducting more such study to improve the delivery services in the Tribal and Dalits areas.

Pathey will engage with government departments for issuing Gender Responsive Budget at state level and also at PRI (Panchayati Raj Institutions) and ULB (Urban Local Bodies)

Pathey will strengthen its research and advocacy work and sharing with various organizations, networks and others.

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“Pathey’s Theory of Change”

Outcome Result

As per Pathey’s “Theory of Change”, emphasis has been given to Access to improved health care, education, and nutrition. The indicators have been selected to increase in number of PHC centers, improved PTR (Pupil Teacher Ratio) and reduction in malnourishment among the children. The baseline data and Target to be achieved have been provided.

(Kindly see the M&E sheet) for outcome indicators for Education and Health care.

For data pertaining to reduction of malnourishment, we will have to wait.

Output Result:

Output Indicator 1: Allocation for health, education and social security is enhanced in the budget

So far output result is concerned as per the Theory of Change; we have attempted to assess the output indicator. The output indicator to be assessed for the allocation for health and family welfare, education and nutrition, the assessment about the budget expenditure against budget outlay and percentage of expenditure against budget outlay is given in the Annual Quality Assessment. For the Health care the percentage out of state’s total budget has increased to 5.16% against the target of 5% in year 2014-15. For education the percentage has increased to 15.74% against the 14%, where as the percentage for nutrition has declined to 2.22% against the 3% target.

Output 2: Increased utilization of funds for health, education and social security

Regarding the utilization of budget allocation against the revised estimates for the health care is more than 100%. The budget expenditure (utilization) is Rs. 6130.32 crore against the Revised estimates of Rs.4868.60 crore. Thus the expenditure for Health and family welfare in percentage term is 105.75% against the revised estimates, similarly, for Educational services the expenditure is Rs. 13339.24 crore against the Revised estimates of Rs.13583.34 crore, thus the expenditure is 98.20% against the revised estimates of 2012-13.

The expenditure for Nutritional services is Rs.2289.35 crore against the revised estimates of Rs.1745.77 crore, thus the expenditure is 131.14% against the revised estimates of 2012-13.

The Revised estimates for state’s consolidated fund (Total Budget) is Rs. 102051.25 crore in 2012-13 and the accounted size of consolidated fund (total budget) is Rs. 98860.80 crore, thus the total size of state’s budget has declined/is short of Rs.3190.45 crore against the revised estimate. Thus the total accounted budget in percentage terms for year 2012-13 is 96.7% against the revised estimates of total budget.

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Transparency Compliance: Governance: Name Gender Position Meetings held (4) and

attended ( ) Dr. Sidhharaj Solanki Male Managing Trustee (4) Ms.Vimla Kharadi Female Trustee (None) Ms.Pankti Jog (Tenure complete)

Female Trustee (1)

Mr.Manohar Makwana Male Trustee (3) Mr.Dineshbhai Parmar Male Trustee (3) Prof .Rohit Shukal Male Trustee (2) Programmes attended by Pathey Team members During the last year, Pathey team members have attended various programmes for capacity building, orientation or sharing organized by as shown in the table below. Any International Travel by any staff member

Mahender Jethmalani visited Nepal as Resource person to WBI (World Bank Institute) for budget work experiences. Travel and Expense paid by Sr. Month Subject Organized by Attended by Expense

paid by 1 April, 2013

Delhi GRB orientation NFI, Delhi Mahender and

Urvashi Patel NFI

2 May, 2013 Hyderbad

National meetings of Budget Groups

CRSD, Hyderabad

Mahender and Natwerbhai

NFI

3 May, 2013 Kathmandu, Nepal

Resource person WBI Mahender WBI

4 August, 2013 Delhi

Briefing on District level budget tracking

CBGA, Delhi Mahender & Makwana Mahendra

CBGA

5 August, 2013 Jaipur

GRB sharing BARC, Rajasthan

Ms. Urvashi and Natwerbhai

BARC

6 October, 2013 Delhi

PBI’s national convention

PBI CBGA, Delhi

Mahender CBGA

7 November, 2013 Delhi

Delhi GRB in India and select states.

NFI, Delhi Mahender and Urvashi Patel

NFI

8 February,2014 Trivendrum

National Budget Group Meet

NFI and ISD, Trivendrum

Mahender and Natwerbhai

NFI

9 March, 2014 Delhi

CBGA Delhi Mahender CBGA

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Gender disaggregate data of staff members

Gender Paid full time Male 5 Female 3 Total 8

Salary structure Distribution of staff according to Salary (January, 2011) Salary plus benefits paid to staff No of staff members

8000-10000 2 10001-15000 3 15001-20000 2 20001-35000 1

Registration and Legal status Registration under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950

PATHEY TRUST

Registartion Number E 9425 Ahemdabad. FCRA (Prior Permission) No.II/21022/94(0395-02)/2009-FCRA-III Address of Registered Office PATHEY TRUST

7,Mangaldeep Flats, Nr. Parikshit Bridge, P.O. Gandhi Ashram Post, Ahmedabad-27

Working Office 3, Aishwarya Apartment, Near Sardar Patel statue, Navjeevan Post, Ahemdabad-14 Phone:91-79-26561694 Email: patheya.budget@hotmail.com Web: www.pathey.in

Auditors Chandervadan Shah & co. Charterd Accountants 801,A,Sahajanand Complex, Shahibaug Road, Ahmedabad-380004.

Banker State Bank Of India Sabarmati, Ahmedabad.380056

Our Partner NFI(National Foundation for India), New Delhi

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