Several irregularities in Gender Budgeting in Rajasthan: CAG

The CAG report has revealed a grim picture of implementation of Gender Budgeting in Rajasthan where several irregularities, including non-implementation of schemes aimed at women empowerment, have been found.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report was table in the Rajasthan Assembly on Wednesday, a day before the prime minister in Jhunjhunu announced expansion of the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' programme aimed at improving welfare services for girls.
The national auditor has observed that only 0.37 per cent of budget allocation was incurred on a scheme aimed at empowering adolescent girls by improving their nutritional and health status, and life and vocational skills during the 2016-17 fiscal.

As per the CAG report on State Finances for 2016-17, Rajasthan has also registered a decrease in the total expenditure against Gender Budgeting.
From 78.6 per cent in 2012-13, it decreased to 62.4 per cent in 2016-17 with several irregularities found in test check of five schemes of three departments with 100 per cent Gender Budget allotment exceeding Rs 10 crore, the report said.
The test checks were conducted for two schemes under the state women and child development department, as many of the rural development and panchayti raj development department and one scheme of the secondary education department, the CAG said.

There was no expenditure in one gender-based scheme and in the remaining four schemes, the expenditure ranged between 0.37 and 27.74 per cent which indicated lack of emphasis on the implementation of Gender Budgeting (in Rajasthan), the report said.

The test check of the 'SABLA Scheme', which aims at empowering adolescent girls, aged between 11 to 18 years, revealed that only Rs 0.37 crore (0.37 per cent) was incurred against the budget allocation of Rs 101.36 crore during 2016-17, it said.
This was due to non-implementation of the supplementary nutrition scheme, the CAG report noted.
The CAG also observed that under the 'Mission Gramya Shakti (MGS)' no expenditure was incurred during 2016-17 against a budget provision of Rs 16.60 crore.

The scheme aims to strengthen women self help groups (SHGs) through clustering, capacity building and handholding and linking them with livelihood promotion programmes.
It could not be implemented due to non-approval of work plan by the finance department, the report said.
Under the plan scheme of cycle distribution to Class 9 girl students in government schools of urban and rural areas, only Rs 23.58 crore (27.74 per cent) was spent against the allotment of Rs 85 crore during 2016-17, the CAG said.
The amount could not be utilised due to delay in supply of cycles, the report said.
In 'National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)', Rs 24.73 crore was spent against the allocation of Rs 118.10 crore due to non-receipt of funds from the Centre while only Rs 132.06 crore was spent against the allocation of Rs. 830.90 crore under the 'Indira Awas Yojna (IAY)' during 2016-17, it said.

On Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) -- a mean to ensure public resources are allocated in an equitable way to meet needs of specific gender groups--, the report said that during the budget speech of 2009-10, the Rajasthan government had announced preparation of the GRB which would enable gender-based budget analysis of each department.
Accordingly, a high-level committee was formed in August 2009 under the chairmanship of the chief secretary and a gender cell was constituted in September 2009 in the women and child development department.
One of the functions and objectives of the GRB was consolidating budget schemes and facilitating integration of various GRB initiatives. Besides, the state government had in August 2011 decided to include Gender Budget Statement (GBS) in the new Integral Financial Management System (IFMS) for preparation of budget estimates from the 2012-13 fiscal, the CAG said.