Economic Survey 2023: Social sector spends more than doubled to ₹21.3 lakh cr in 7 yrs

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased spending in the social sector not just by the government but also by private philanthropists as well. The Economic Survey 2023 also endorses the trend. The social sector expenditure has increased to ₹21.3 lakh crore in FY23 from ₹9.1 lakh crore in FY16. The central and state government’s budgeted expenditure on the health sector touched 2.1% of GDP in FY23 and 2.2% in FY22 against 1.6% in FY21.

The survey highlights the findings kof the 2022 report of the UNDP on the ‘Multidimensional Poverty Index’, which says that 41.5 crore people exited poverty in India between 2005-06 and 2019-20. As of December 2022, over 28.5 crore unorganised workers have been registered on the eShram portal, which has been developed for creating a national database of unorganised workers, which is verified with Aadhaar.

The JAM (Jan-Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile) trinity has brought the marginalised sections of society into the formal financial system, revolutionising the path of transparent and accountable governance by empowering the people. The survey says the labour markets have recovered beyond pre-Covid levels, in both urban and rural areas, with unemployment rates falling from 5.8% in 2018-19 to 4.2% in 2020-21.

The fiscal year FY22 also saw an improvement in gross enrolment ratios (GER) in schools and an improvement in gender parity. GER in the primary enrolment in Class I to V as a percentage of the population in age 6-10 years for girls as well as boys have improved in FY22.