Budget as instrument for women's empowerment

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.

- Lalita Panicker

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.