Himachal allocates ₹4,302 crore to women-oriented schemes, 82% more than last year
This constitutes 45.17% of the total development budget of ₹9,523.82 of the state and nearly 82% more than the previous year’s allocation
In its attempt to address gender-sensitive vulnerabilities and achieve gender equality, the government of Himachal Pradesh has allocated ₹4,302.45 crore to women-oriented schemes, as per the gender budget statement (GBS) for financial year 2023-24.
This constitutes 45.17% of the total development budget of ₹9,523.82 of the state and nearly 82% more than the previous year’s allocation.
Chief minister Sukhvider Singh Sukhu had presented a ₹53,413 crore budget in the assembly on March 17. The state government had started presenting GBS in the assembly in 2022.
“With a view to capture the actual status of participation of women and benefits provided to them through departmental schemes, the budget statements of gender responsive budgeting have been divided into two sections -- financial and physical,” the chief minister said.
Hundred percent of women-oriented schemes have been placed in ‘Category 1’ and schemes with less than 100% of women beneficiaries are other gender beneficiaries in ‘Category 2’.
“Another category of the scheme (category 3) has been identified which intends to benefit all genders equally without any discrimination and it is almost impossible to know the exact number of individuals belonging to different genders, who stands to benefit from this scheme,” the chief minister has said.
The financial statements aim at undertaking expenditure analysis of women’s welfare-oriented schemes whereas physical progress statements relate financial allocations with physical outputs.
The document contains information regarding 33 schemes of 11 departments, which are 100% women-specific, 105 other schemes of 20 departments with less than 100% women-beneficiaries and other gender beneficiaries also form a part of it.
Out of the total outlays for implementing women-oriented schemes, a provision of ₹415 crore (9.65%) is for 100% women-oriented schemes and ₹3,887.40 crore (90.35%) for less than 100% women-oriented schemes.
Thirty-eight schemes of nine departments, where it is not feasible to quantify beneficiaries by gender, constitute 28.82% of the total development budget.
Women are the prime stakeholders of gender budgeting while the department of planning is mainly responsible for financial allocations based on discussions with the stakeholders.
The women and child development department is the nodal department and is responsible for promoting gender equality.
Departments like health, education, empowerment of SCs, OBCs, minorities and especially abled (ESOMSA), labour and employment, which mainly implement gender-sensitive schemes, are among other stakeholders.
Gender budgeting is the dissection of the annual budget to find out gender-based outcomes and results of the government budgeting and is the process of converting gender commitment into budgetary commitments, states the document.
The purpose of gender-responsive budgeting is not to create or provide a separate budget, but to conduct or create positive activities to meet the specific needs of women under the general budget to prepare a specific document clearly specifying and highlighting the purely women-oriented schemes and relating budgetary outlays with their physical achievements, said the chief minister.
The ultimate aim of gender budgeting is to achieve gender equality in society, he added.
