With the social infrastructure unable to keep pace with rapid gross domestic product growth, the Economic Survey on Tuesday asked the government to ensure judicious utilisation of funds and to check leakages in social sector programmes.
"Value for every tax rupee spent has to be ensured by emphasising the outcomes and avoiding any wastage or leakages in the delivery mechanism of public goods and services," said the pre-Budget Survey for 2006-07.
Favouring effective government intervention in education, health and other social sectors for achieving the goal of inclusive growth, the Survey listed the administration's role in these sectors as a top priority.
The Survey noted that expenditure by the Centre and the states on social sector has risen to Rs 1,009,668 crore (Rs 10096.68 billion) in 2006-07 from Rs 869,757 crore (Rs 8697.57 billion) in 2004-05. In terms of percentage of GDP, this expenditure was more than one-fourth (28.30 per cent) of the total spending in 2005-06.
To make creditable progress in social infrastructure, the Survey pointed out the need to revisit the 'multiplicity of poverty alleviation schemes' to widen the social safety net for people, both in villages and towns.
In all, there are nine key schemes for poverty alleviation, employment generation and basic services like the Indira Awaas Yojana, National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and Sampurna Grameen Rozgar Yojana.
But despite these schemes, the country lags behind most nations in critical social indicators like elementary education, income, health and life expectancy, the Survey said, noting that UNDP's Human Development Report for 2006 ranked India a poor 126 among 177 countries.
More from rediff