Budget as instrument for women’s empowerment
The lack of gender-segregated data must be rectified especially for the marginalised sections of society
As the Union Budget draws near, it would be appropriate to look at the importance of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) to give us an idea of how much of the budget is being used for promoting women’s empowerment . It was as far back as 2005-2006 that the government began bringing out the gender budget statement (GBS). Allocation for GRB has over the years remained at 4-5.5% of the Union Budget. While even this is welcome, there can be several improvements that could benefit women. Budget 2023-24, coming as it did in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, was not very supportive for women and gender minorities to rebuild their lives. Many women had to give up their jobs to become caregivers to those affected by Covid and a sizeable section was not able to reintegrate into the workforce once the pandemic got over.
All the ministries/departments were asked to create a Gender Budget Cell (GBC) which facilitates GRB at the ministry/department level and a charter for the GBCs has also been developed. The GBCs are responsible for analysing the gender issues addressed by the major schemes/programmes of respective ministries/departments, conducting/commissioning performance audits of the schemes/ programmes, suggesting further policy interventions and preparing literature on gender perspectives related to sector/service covered by their respective ministries.
GRB would do well to stop regarding women as one homogenous group and focus specifically on women from marginalised communities. One study shows that Muslim women are not adequately represented in GRB despite their facing disadvantages and exclusions in several aspects due to poverty, patriarchy and religious restrictions. They continue to be largely invisible in policy frameworks meant for the development of socio-religious communities. The study highlighted the need for greater policy attention on Muslim women.
Some states, however, have done fairly well on GRB. Kerala and Karnataka have gone beyond just presenting a GBS and identified priorities for advancing equality. A few other states have also put in place various mechanisms to ensure that budgetary allocations go to the right sort of schemes aimed at empowering women. This suggests that, despite all its flaws, GRB gains momentum when and if the authorities take care to incorporate gender in the planning process.
Nesar Ahmad, director, Budget Analysis and Research Centre Trust, Jaipur and one of the authors in the Gender Report brought out by the Feminist Policy Collective says: “GRB in the country has to go beyond the GBS and focus on gender-responsive planning and programmes in all sectors including the so-called gender-neutral sectors.” He feels ministries should formulate a gender action plan based on the specific needs of women. This, he says, “would help identify the gaps in development and would enable ministries to look beyond the binary of gender, address the issues/concerns of gender minorities, recognise diversity and focus on the intersectionality approach as also address the issues of discrimination and exclusion faced by marginalised groups of women such as SC/ST, DNT and minority women.”
The lack of gender-segregated data must be rectified especially for the marginalised sections of society. Unless there is proper data on women and their needs, it becomes impossible to allocate resources in the appropriate areas. This is important for the mainstreaming of women in the process of development. Further, there is a need to develop a robust monitoring mechanism that will help track the outcomes given the recent clustering of schemes in the budget. Ritu Dewan, founder member of the Feminist Policy Collective and former director, department of economics, University of Bombay, says, “Gender budgeting must of necessity be located in the context of the functioning of the macro-patriarchal State and its financial articulation related to both allocations and revenue-raising.” Hopefully, the finance minister who has been sensitive to gender issues will enhance allocations for GRB this time around when she presents her seventh budget this year.
The views expressed are personal
Recommended Topics