Against the backdrop of the launch of New Education Policy 2020, COVID-19 outbreak, the release of the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, and the National Family Health Survey-2019-21 fact sheets, an analysis of three pandemic budgets reveals that the social sector (health, nutrition, and education) does not get momentum. To revive the economy, the government is pitching human development expenditure against capital expenditure. There are substantial socioeconomic disparities in health,

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... ucation, and nutrition outcomes. This mere Capex push approach seems misleading because health, education, and nutrition should be the centre of policy prescriptions. We should not assume that growth will take care of development automatically. Instead, growth and development should go hand-in-hand in a welfare state.