Over 3,500 crore SSA funds were unspent during 2019-20: Education Ministry

NEW DELHI: Over Rs 3,500 crore of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) funds were underutilised during 2019-20, the education ministry said in a reply to a Parliament question. This was during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that induced a nationwide lockdown.

The ministry data, however, showed that the underutilization of SSA funds were much lower during 2020-21, just over Rs 120 crore.

In 2019-20, the budget estimate of SSA was over Rs 36,000 crore but only over Rs 32,000 crore was actually spent.

The mid-day meal scheme, now under the PM Poshan scheme, also saw nearly Rs 250 crore remain underutilised during 2019-20. In 2020-21, the amount underutilised was just over Rs 20 crore.

Interestingly, the National Scheme for Incentive to Girl Child for Secondary Education (NSIGSE), which was allocated Rs 100 crore, had over Rs 80 crore of underutilised funds in 2019-20. In 2020-21, NSIGSE was only allocated Rs 1 crore, even then nearly Rs 83 lakh was unspent.

The NSIGSE was aimed to “reduce the drop-outs and to promote the enrolment of girl children” among the marginalised Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. As per the scheme, Rs 3,000 is deposited as fixed deposit in the bank accounts of eligible candidates which they can claim with interest upon passing Class 10 and attaining the age of 18 years.

In Budget 2021-22, the government did not allocate any funds to the scheme.