Union Minister Smriti Irani has said that a children-centric scheme of the government had seen a “390%” increase in budgetary allocations since 2014. She was responding to a tweet by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
On Monday, Mr. Gandhi retweeted a news report on “share” of budgetary allocation for children for the financial year 2022-23, and commented, “Modi government has jeopardised India’s future by halving the budget for child welfare.”
Ms. Irani, Minister for Women and Child Development, responded by sharing two bar graphs showing an increase in allocation for some of the schemes under her Ministry. One graph showed an increase of “390.66%” for Mission Vatsalaya (an umbrella scheme for child welfare and protection) for which allocations rose from ₹300 crore in 2013-14 to ₹1,472 crore in 2022-23.
