Health and Wellbeing have found sharp focus and central positioning in the Union Budget 2021-22 presented in Parliament today by the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. They form the basis of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat. There is a steep increase of 137 percentage in the Budget outlay for Health and Wellbeing.

Noting that the World Health Organisation has repeatedly stressed the importance of clean water, sanitation, and clean environment, as a pre requisite to achieving universal health, the Budget has made significant allocation to these sectors.

 Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban)

The Union Budget has announced launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban).  It aims at universal water supply in all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies with 2.86 crore household tap connections, as well as liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities. It will be implemented over 5 years, with an outlay of  Rs 2,87,000 crore.

Swachch Bharat, Swasth Bharat

For further swachhta of urban India, the Budget has focused on complete faecal sludge management and waste water treatment, source segregation of garbage, reduction in single-use plastic, reduction in air pollution by effectively managing waste from construction-and-demolition activities and bio-remediation of all legacy dump sites. The Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 will be implemented with a total financial allocation of  Rs 1,41,678 crore over a period of 5 years from 2021-2026.

Clean Air

To tackle the burgeoning problem of air pollution, I propose to provide an amount of Rs 2,217 crore for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population in this budget.

Scrapping Policy

A voluntary vehicle scrapping policy forms a crucial part of the Union Budget, to phase out old and unfit vehicles. This will help in encouraging fuel-efficient, environment friendly vehicles, thereby reducing vehicular pollution and oil import bill.  Vehicles would undergo fitness tests in automated fitness centres – after 20 years in case of personal vehicles, and after 15 years in case of commercial vehicles. Details of the scheme will be separately shared by the Ministry, the Finance Minister announced.

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