New Delhi, March1: The budget outlay of Rs 16,968 crore for health in 2008-09 is 17 per cent higher than last year’s, but tobacco control, polio eradication and several health institutions have less money to spend.

India’s tobacco control programme will get Rs 24 crore this year, in contrast to Rs 28 crore that it spent last year. The Rs 1,042-crore outlay for polio is Rs 52 crore lower than what the government had spent on polio eradication efforts last year.

The Central Government Health Scheme — a 54-year old programme that provides free diagnosis as well as treatment to central government employees and their families has also received lower funds this year — Rs 379 crore against Rs 404 crore last year.

“We see a clear deceleration of growth in health spending,” said Abhay Shukla, a senior official with the Centre for Health and Allied Themes, a non-government agency in Pune that tracks health issues.

“The growth was 20 per cent last year. We need a steady growth of 35 per cent for several years to achieve the health-spending goal of 2 to 3 per cent of the GDP announced in the common minimum programme,” he added. “We’re drifting away from the goal.”

Health activists said they expected more investments. “The economy is doing well. It’s hard to understand what’s holding the government back,” said Vandana Prasad, national secretary of the People’s Health Movement, India.

The outlay for the National Rural Health Mission has increased 11 per cent to Rs 10,786 crore, but an innovative component of this programme called the Mission Flexible Pool has actually lost money.

“The Mission Flexible Pool allows states to decide priorities — whether to strengthen primary healthcare centres or support community-based health workers,” Shukla said. It will receive Rs 1,950 crore, against Rs 2,650 crore last year.

Several central government hospitals — some with attached medical colleges — also have lower funds for 2008-09. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences gets Rs 452 crore against Rs 470 crore last year.

But the budget has proposed Rs 441 crore, an 86 per cent increase, for routine immunisation of infants against six preventable diseases — polio, tetanus, pertussis, diphtheria, measles and tuberculosis.

Mental health has got the highest raise. A programme to provide early detection and treatment of mental illness has received a 107 per cent increase — Rs 58 crore from last year’s Rs 28 crore. The National AIDS Control Programme has an outlay of Rs 993 crore, a 15 per cent increase.