CRY - Pre-Budget note

Focused investments in the social sectors like education and health have provided the inflexion points for equitable, sustainable and exponential economic growth worldwide and more particularly in our neighbourhood. Investments in the social sector do not come at the cost of economic stimuli, they provide them.

Country	Human Development Index	GDP per Capita in US $	Education Index	Life expectancy at Birth
China	0.75	4580	0.83	71
Sri Lanka	0.75	3570	0.83	73
India	0.59	2670	0.59	64

South Asian countries invested close to 26.5% of public expenditure towards social services in the '90s. In India that proportion is 11%. It is our hope that this budget will strengthen and extend the commitments made in the UPA government's CMP and partially fulfilled in last year's budget.

Ingrid Srinath
CEO , CRY Child Rights and You

For more information, please write to Madhura Kapdi at cryinfo.mum@crymail.org