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Institutionalisation of the gender budget that started off in 2005, is still continued with an average of 4.6 percent of total expenditure being spent on issues relating to women over the past five years. The Gender budget statement of 2023 portrays a total of five percent of expenditure to be spent on women. The Gender budget has two parts, one with 100 percent allocation to women and another with 30 percent allocation on women related expenditures. In the 100 percent allocation part, the largest allocation in the gender budget is the Rural Housing Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) which has an allocation of Rs 54,487 crore. The scheme encourages houses to be owned by women and thereby might benefit women as this is a gender- neutral scheme. This allocation gives the impression of greater spending on women in Budget 2023-24.
Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement on converting the 81 lakh self help groups established under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihood Mission into large producer enterprises or collectives is a welcome move. It is promised that an enabling environment with supportive policies to scale up the operations and convert them to Unicorns will be provided. It is one of the schemes announced that directly impacts women unlike the allocation under PMAY. On the flip side, for the initiative to be successful, the ecosystem to grow SHGs to large producers need policy corrections in credit access, upskilling and employability.
There are no new women specific schemes or programmes announced in the budget . The allocation to the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2023-24 budget is Rs 25448.75 crore with focus on the existing schemes like Mission Shakti, Saksham Anganwadi, POSHAN 2.0 and Mission Vatsalya.
Another women specific announcement is the one-time new small savings scheme, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate , a two year deposit facility, at fixed interest rate of 7.5 per cent with partial withdrawal option. The budget 2023-24 also reiterates the cliche “inclusive development agenda” in every programme announced, that is hardly meted out.
The pertinent question is whether these budgetary allocation for women aimed to achieve gender equality, is actually meeting the end. Most of the budget funds are spent in gender-neutral schemes or in those schemes where women are one of the targeted beneficiaries. India with a skewed female worker population rate which contributes heavily to the gender gap in the economy must focus on increasing economic empowerment of women. As per the latest PLFS report available for year 2020-21, the estimated Worker Population Ratio (WPR), 15 years and above, both for male and female was 73.5% and 31.4% respectively. Budget being an indicator of the government’s agenda for the upcoming year should have focussed on improving the women employment opportunities and the female worker population ratio.
The budgetary allocations shall produce the intended results only if the underlying policies and programmes brought out by the ministries are aligned. The gender mainstreaming agenda has to be incorporated in the policies underlying the manufacturing sector which are underperforming as per the Economic Survey 2023. Many of the entry level barriers like gender discriminatory laws and policies have to be revisited and proactive policies that incentivises hiring of women into factory work force have to be worked out.
Gender inclusiveness can be achieved only through gender mainstreaming in the policy design, implementation and evaluation of financial allocations across all government programmes. Building a gender disaggregated data and strengthening the gender budget by integrating it to the outcome budget will help in better evaluation and focussed allocation.
A budget which portrays “economic empowerment of women” as an opportunity that can be transformative for Amrit Kaal should have more focus on bridging the gender gap in employment. A failure in accommodating half the population in the growth agenda can cost heavily in India’s achievement of a 5 trillion USD economy.
Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research.
Anu Maria Francis
Anu Maria Francis is an Associate, Research at Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR). She completed her graduation in Law from National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi. She has worked as UPSC exam trainer and mentor with many coaching institutions in Kerala. She has also interned with a couple of organisations like Kerala State Information Commission, ACTIONAID India, Ceat Tyres Ltd, Biocon Pharma Ltd, Khaitan and Co Law Firm etc. Her academic interests pertain to legal and governance issues and education. She also has experience in handling business ventures.
