 "gender budget")
Government spending on the gender Budget is going to be the highest ever on record in 2024-25.
In her Interim Budget speech, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who has been in office since 2019-20, announced Rs 3.1 trillion for schemes and programmes that address issues involving women. In comparison, about Rs 2.2 trillion was allocated in the previous financial year.
Sitharaman is the country’s first full-time woman finance minister and also the longest-serving.
With this increase in allocation, the gender Budget now accounts for 6.5 per cent of the total expenditure by the Centre, the highest ratio ever on record. The average over the past two decades stands at 4.8 per cent. According to the figures for the Revised Estimates for 2023-24, the government is likely to exceed the gender Budget by 116.5 per cent and spend over Rs 2.6 trillion.
India’s gender Budget was specifically started in 2005-06 to view the budgetary exercise through a gender lens and to ensure that the benefits of development do not exclude women. It does not indicate a creation of a separate Budget per se, rather it seeks to address the specific needs of women. The gender Budget, however, remains less than 1 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Also Read
Lekha Chakraborty, professor and chair at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and who was involved in instituting the gender Budget in India, said the allocation of less than 1 per cent was not satisfactory.
“The size of the gender Budget is a macroeconomic question. However, given the fiscal consolidation path, unless taxes are buoyant, the FM seeks public expenditure compression to reach her deficit target. It is refreshing that the public expenditure cut has not happened on gender budgeting.”
"The major issue that the gender Budget has faced over the years is the bottlenecks in its implementation resulting in slow progress," said Angellica Aribam, founder of Femme First Foundation, a non-profit working to augment gender participation in politics.
“With more funds and subsequent pressure from the government, these can be overcome over time,” said Aribam.
The gender Budget broadly comprises two parts. Part A includes programmes that are completely meant for women. Part B, however, includes all those programmes where at least 30 per cent of the provisions are women-centric. This essentially means that some of the major centrally sponsored schemes are also covered under the Budget.
For example, the Budget includes the scheme for rural housing, Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, which has an allocation of Rs 54,500 crore, the Jal Jeevan Mission with an allocation of Rs 34,162.32 crore and the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) livelihood generation scheme with a Budget of about Rs 29,000 crore.
Chakraborty said it was important to apply a gender lens to such mainstream spending, otherwise it might get reduced to just specifically targeted programmes for women which is hardly one per cent of the budget.
“Part B of gender budgeting refers to the intensity of gender allocations in mainstream public spending. The proportion of intrinsic gender components in these spending is calculated based on sectoral administrative data disaggregated across gender in accessing these programmes,” she said, adding that getting gender disaggregated fiscal data from detailed demand for grants itself was a challenge.
She said “mainstreaming gender in budgets requires to look into the intensity of gender in mainstream allocations, which is compelling”.
Sitharaman announced in Parliament that the welfare and aspirations of women are of the government’s highest priority. About 300 million Mudra loans have been given to women entrepreneurs and over 70 per cent of houses under the PM Awas Yojana Grameen were given to women as sole or joint owners.
Since the gender Budget is an inclusive strategy, Aribam said, it should also include a recognition of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, or another diverse gender identity) community and schemes specific to them.
“Some of the areas the government can focus on are initiatives to increase women’s participation in the labour force to 50 per cent, giving support to private companies to build creches and childcare facilities for new parents, reducing the gender pay gap by providing extra tax benefits to women entrepreneurs and employees,” Aribam said.
