Maneka Sanjay Gandhi expresses satisfaction at the budgetary allocation for the WCD Ministry for the Financial Year 2016-17

Significant increase of 11% in the Gender Budget for 2016-17

Women's safety, fighting malnutrition, preventing crimes against women and children, and economic empowerment of women shall remain the priority areas for the Ministry of Women and Child Development in the coming year. The Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said that these priorities are adequately reflected in the budget for the financial year 2016-17.

She was briefing media persons about the budget allocation for the Ministry of Women and Child Development in New Delhi today. Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said that in reference to the Gender Budget 2016-17, the financial allocation for women in Central Budget stands as Rs.90,624 Crore as against Rs.81,249 Crores which is a significant increase of 11%.

Expressing satisfaction at the allocation, the Minister said that, we are very happy with the budget, we got everything we asked for.

The main highlights of the Budget 2016-17 of Ministry of Women and Child Development are as below:

1. The allocation of the Ministry for the year 2016-17 is Rs. 17,300 crores as against the original allocation of Rs 8,335 crores in 2015-16. Which was later revised at RE stage toRs. 17,257 crores. The Budget 2016-17 also contains provision of Rs.108 crore for Non-Plan expenditure bringing the total budgetary allocation for the Financial Year 2016-17 to Rs.17,408 Crores.

2. This allocation needs to be seen along with the overall Gender Budget of the central government. Gender Budget is divided in two parts. Part A covers all the programmes run by different Ministries which are fully dedicated to women. Part B covers those programmes of different Ministries which have a specific allocation for women or which benefit women in quantifiable terms.

3. The total allocation for Part A in the Gender Budget for 2016-17 is Rs. 17,412 crores as against Rs. 11,388 crores in 2015-16. Similarly, the allocation under Part B for 2016-17 is Rs. 73,212 crores as against Rs. 69,860 crores in 2015-16. Together, the total allocation for women in the Central Budget stands at Rs. 90,624 crores as against Rs. 81,249 crores which is a significant increase of 11%.

4. Major increase in the allocation include the component of Indira AwasYojana dedicated to women, components of schemes of farmer welfare, higher education, MNREGA etc.

5. The primary area of focus of the Ministry is malnutrition. A number of measures have been taken to enhance the capacity of the Ministry to deliver supplementary nutritional services for women and children in line with the philosophy of Economic Survey which had stated that investment in maternal and child nutrition is the best way to make economic social investment for reaping the benefits of demographic dividend.

6. The Ministry has been given enhanced allocation of Rs. 400 crores in 2016-17 for the MatritavaSahyogYojna as against the previous year's final allocation of Rs. 233 crores.

7. An allocation of Rs. 360 crores has been made in 2016-17 as against Rs. 65 crores last year under the National Nutrition Mission.

8. Alongwith this, an allocation of Rs. 450 crores has been made in 2016-17 under the World Bank assisted ICDS Strengthening Project as against last year's final allocation of Rs. 35 crores.

9. An additional sum of Rs. 15 crores has been provided to the Food and Nutrition Board for establishment of state-of-the art laboratories at four regional locations in the country.

10. The Budget of NIPCCD has also been increased from Rs. 20 crores in 2015-16 to Rs. 40 crores in 2016-17.

11. Similarly, the budgetary allocations for key programmes for women have also been enhanced.

12. The allocation of establishment of shelter homes for women has been increased from Rs. 52 crores in 2015-16 to Rs. 100 crores in 2016-17. This will enable the Ministry to create additional facilities, especially for widows.

13. The Ministry had proposed to significantly expand the reach of National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) to establish a network of village level facilitation centres. Accordingly, the Budget for the NMEW has been enhanced from Rs. 26 crores in 2015-16 to Rs. 50 crores in2016-17.

14. The Ministry has been giving focused attention to the subject of trafficking of women and children and it has been decided to establish a comprehensive framework to combat this problem. A Committee has already been constituted to draft a new legislation and design an institutional framework for this purpose. The allocation for this has accordingly been increased from Rs. 20 crores in 2015-16 to Rs. 35 crores in 2016-17.

15. One of the key elements of Ministry's functioning is a comprehensive outreach programme which can enable change of mind-set of common people. In order to further strengthen this, the budget has been enhanced from Rs. 40 crores in 2015-16 to Rs. 60 crores in 2016-17.

16. Establishment of One Stop Centres for providing safety to women affected by violence is being significantly expanded in 2016-17. For this purpose, the Budget has been enhanced from Rs. 13 crores in 2015-16 to Rs. 75 crores in 2016-17.

17. A sum of Rs. 500 crores has been provided under the Nirbhaya Fund to the Ministry in 2016-17.

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