Stabilisation and structural adjustment programme(SAP) was introduced in 1991 to resolve the economic crisis in India. Under structural adjustment there has been compression in government spending in an effort to bring down the fiscal deficit to the desired level. This compression has an adverse impact on the social sectors. Given this background, an attempt has been made to examine the trends in expenditure on social sector (revenue account) and its important components education and public health during the pre (1971-72 to 1990-91) and post reform (1991-92 to 2010-11) period. In the present study, southern states were selected to assess the above said expenditure across the states and to examine the disparity in the expenses among the states. The study found that, during the post reform period the expenditure on Social and Community Services, Education and Public Health have increased at a slower pace when compared with the pre reform period. The deviations between the states expenditure on social & community services and education showed a declining trend.
