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Gender Budgeting

Posted on February 11, 2023 by admin1  249

In News

  • Recent Budget 2023-24 sees marginal rise in allocation for WCD Ministry for women

Key Takeaways:

  • The allocation under the Gender Budget rose from ?1,71,006.47 crore in 2022-23 to ?2,23,219.75 crore in 2023-24 which is an increase by 23% compared to 2022-23.
  •  The gender component accounted for 4.9% of the entire Budget, compared to 4.23% in 2022-23.
  • The allocation for the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development saw a small increase of 1%.
  • Around 90% of gender budgeting is concentrated in five ministries: Rural Development, Women and Child Development, Agriculture, Health and Family Welfare, and Education.
  • Key areas in need of attention like transportation, water collection and security remain ignored.
  • The allocation for Mission Shakti, which includes key schemes for women’s protection, saw a decrease of 1.2%.
  • Part A of the Gender Budget, which counts allocation for schemes exclusively for women, saw a 70% increase from last year.
  • The majority of this increase went to the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana rural housing scheme whose inclusion in the Gender Budget is questioned, since it does not benefit women exclusively.

  • Union Budget has also announced a new small savings scheme for women called the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate which will allow a deposit of up to ?2 lakh for two years at a fixed interest rate of 7.5%.
  • Previously, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) released a Handbook on Gender Budgeting in 2015, which provides exhaustive guidance for operationalising GRB in practice.

Mission Shakti

  • The Government of India launched “Mission Shakti,” an integrated women empowerment program. 
  • It is an integrated women empowerment programme as an umbrella scheme for the safety, security and empowerment of women for implementation during the 15th  Finance Commission period 202l-22 to 2025-26. 
  • The norms of ‘Mission Shakti’ will be applicable with effect from 01.04.2022.

It has two sub-schemes:

  • “Sambal” or One Stop Centre (OSC)
  • “Samarthya” or Swadhar Greh which is now a part of Shakti Sadan

Gender Budgeting

  • Gender budgeting is defined by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) as a tool to achieve gender mainstreaming and ensure benefits of development reach women as much as men.
  • The government publishes a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) every year along with the Union Budget to review programmes from a gender perspective and present information on allocations for women.
  • It is analysis of the budget through a gender lens rather than creating a separate budget for women.
  • The goal is to examine the gender-specific impact of the budget and align it with gender commitments.
  • Examples of programs that benefit women more than men include: Nal se Jal (piped water supply), Ujjwala Yojana (cooking fuel), and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (toilet construction).

Importance of Gender Budgeting

Challenges of Gender Budgeting
  • Promotes transparency and accountability in government budgeting processes.
  • Addresses persistent gaps in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
  • Ensures allocation of resources to address specific needs and challenges faced by women and girls.
  • Supports achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment, essential for sustainable development.
  • Lack of data and information on the gender impacts of government policies and programs.
  • Resistance to change and limited understanding of the importance of gender budgeting.
  • Lack of political will and resources for implementing gender budgeting effectively.
  • Difficulty in integrating gender considerations into complex budget processes and decision-making structures.

Source: LM

 
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