Focus Areas:Join Our Mailing List: |
People's Budget Initiative
One of the core mandates of People's Budget Initiative is to organize a National Convention on the approaching Union Budget every year to build a common understanding among different stakeholders on critical gaps in public provisioning for important sectors and for arriving at a common set of prioritized policy and budgetary demands for different sectors. The Charter of Demands prepared in this National Convention forms the basis of advocacy with the policymakers and members of legislature in the ensuing months. Since the central idea is to democratize budgets by giving people's voice its due space in the budget processes, the National Convention brings together, not just academicians or policy analysts working on various sectors, but also a significant number of participants with grassroots level experience. These participants are activists and groups working relentlessly on issues of human rights and socio-economic justice across different parts of the country, keen to engage with this process of influencing budget. The activities of People's Budget Initiative are facilitated by an Organising Committee comprising the following organisations: ActionAid, Budget Analysis Rajasthan Centre, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, Centre for Democracy and Social Action, Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes, Centre for Rural Studies and Development, Charkha Development Communication Network, Christian Aid India, Centre for Legislative Research and Advocacy, Centre for Youth and Social Development, Life Education and Development Support, Grameen Development Services, Human Rights Law Network, Indian Social Studies Trust, National Conference of Dalit Organisations, National Social Watch Coalition, National Centre for Advocacy Studies, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, Nirantar – a centre for gender and education, North East Network, Open Learning Systems, Oxfam India, One World South Asia, Patheya, Programme on Women's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Social Watch – Tamil Nadu, Samarthan, Sanket, UNIFEM, WaterAid, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, World Vision India The People's Budget Initiative now aims to transform the advocacy efforts of the civil society and the legislature on policy issues into a campaign / movement on budget accountability in the country. In this regard, the following objectives have been proposed for People's Budget Initiative (PBI) for the coming years:
|
Budget Track
This track is a special issue on the Right to Health. It includes 'The Social Context of Draft National Health Bill-2009', 'Reforming Financing Strategies for Equity and Universal Access to Healthcare' and more. People's Budget Initiative
|
The
key to substantive democracy is active involvement of the people
in every aspect of governance; and budgets as an important instrument
of governance are no exception. However, the budget-making process
in India has been closed and largely opaque. It is in this context
that a number of civil society organisations got together in 2006
to form a coalition - the People's Budget Initiative. This
coalition has facilitated involvement of civil society in the budget
process of the Union Government every year by creating a platform
where civil society activists articulate key demands and expectations
from the forthcoming Union Budget. The members of this coalition
are from people's movements, grassroot organisations, national and
international development organisations, academia and the media.
CBGA serves as the Secretariat of People's Budget Initiative.
A
civil society coalition, which campaigns for the inclusion of
people's movements, grassroots organisations and national and
international NGOs in the policy processes that determine the
priorities underlying government budgets in India.