GENDER BUDGETING

Gender inequalities persist in all areas of social and economic life. Gender budgeting is an important public governance tool that governments can use to assess how budget decisions impact gender equality. 

When implemented effectively, gender budgeting helps expose how gender inequalities may have inadvertently become embedded in public policies and the allocation of resources and promotes budget measures that will be effective at closing gender gaps. It is popularly called as, Gender Sensitive Budgeting (GSB) and Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB).

In case of EU budget processes ,  it means, the full integration of gender perspectives at all stages of budgeting and planning processes. Practical steps to this end include: 1)A gender-based assessment to take stock of, and make visible, the gendered impacts of budgets – such a gender budget analysis is the starting point for all gender budgeting work. 2)Promoting changes to advance gender equality based on the results of the gender budget analysis. 3)Organising gender budgeting work through a combination of governmental & non-governmental actors - analysis of practical gender budgeting experiences worldwide. 

In practice, gender budgeting is about revealing the different impacts of spending and revenue decisions on women and men, which differ depending on their life stages and economic and social circumstances.

GENDER BUDGETING IN INDIA

The roots of gender budgeting, are seen in five year plans of govt of India. Through the five year plans,  government have been , trying to create socio-economic interventions to benefit women & children by implementing numerous programmes in the past. This was done through budgetary allocations which led to introduction of the gender budget in India.

There was no gender budget model for developing countries at those times. So it was essential to boost up, the research for the development  of  methods and strategies  for allocation of resources,  to achieve the gender justice .

So to construct an analytical framework for gender budget, in 2000, the National Institute of Public Finance & Policy (NIPFP) was commissioned by. the Government of India (GoI) & United Nations Entity for Gender Equality & the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). The goal was to create a model to link fiscal policy measures to ensure the gender  development. 

In 2004–05, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), GoI, amended its mission statement to “Budgeting for Gender Equality.”The first Gender Budget Statement was introduced in the year, 2005 -06. This initiative got global popularity & gender agenda became, the key part of budget formulation process.(Jhamb & Mishra 2015).

Practical theme in gender budgeting was the sharing of benefits of development between men & women equally. It generated a framework which involved formulation, implementation & review process of policies. It involves analysis of budgetary allocation & expenditure , implementation and the policy outcomes. It assures budgetary and policy commitment to gender equality which should be reflected in planning & policy. 

The survey conducted by IMF reveals that, among G-20 nations, there are very few tools available to operationalise, assess, monitor and audit these programmes and only few nations have examined the effectiveness of programmes with their immediate effects on gender.

IMF introduced, the Gender Budgeting Index(GBI), in 2022, to evaluate the performance of various countries. On the basis of performance , the countries are categorised in three categories -high, medium, and low. Among all G20 nations, Canada, Mexico, France, South Korea, and Japan performed well and categorised as high performers in GBI . 

India along with Brazil, Australia, South Africa has been placed under medium performer category. Russia, China and the United States have been placed as low performers in GBI.

The gender budgeting in India involves two sections, ‘Part A’ includes, those schemes that have 100% allocation for women & ‘Part B’ includes, the schemes in which, at least 30% of the allocation is for women. 

To categorize the public expenditure  according to genders , some parameters were under consideration like spending that targeted women and girls; pro-woman allocations, which are collective spending plans with a significant women’s component; and residual public spending that has gender-differential effects. Since 2016–17, there has been a decline in this allocation with little improvement in 2023–24.

GENDER BUDGET 2023-24

Under the budgetary allocation of the year 2023-24, Govt , through its, 36 ministries, allocated a budget of Rs. 2,23,219.75 crore, under gender budget, which  is just 4.95% of the total union budget, with an increase from 2022–23 accounting for 4.33%. Allocations under, ‘Part A’ included Rs. 88,044.21 crore, & under ‘Part B’ included Rs.1,35,175.54 crore. 

For the first time, the Ministry of Tourism has been listed in Part ‘A’, of the gender budget, with a budgetary provision of Rs. 5.27 crore to make tourists destinations safe for women.

From the year 2005 to 2022 , two states of northeast, Mizoram & Tripura have been receiving grants-in-aid from the Ministry of Home Affairs under the union budget, for the maintenance of the Brus, living in relief camps . This grant is issued to protect the minority Brus migrants from Mezo people who are attacking them. 

This grant has been issued since the year 1997, in order to relocate them to  northern Mizoram from western part , to  create a safe asylum for Brus. Tripura’s Kanchanpur district is housing more than 30,000 of these Bru migrants. For the first time in revised estimates of 2022-23, grant of  Rs.130 crore in Part A, has been issued for Tripura under gender budget. In the year 2023-24  this allocation amount increased to Rs.220 crore in Part A.

The background of these allocations can be find out in the agreement of the year 2020 between, Govt. of India, Governments of Tripura & Mizoram & Bru-Reang representatives  taken place at New Delhi. As per the agreement, each resettled Bru family would be given 30×40 sq ft of land & Rs. 1.5 lakh for construction of house, fixed deposit of Rs. 4 lakh, Rs. 5,000 cash assistance per month for two years and free ration for two year (MHA 2022).

The allocation of land & grant in aid to construct the house may be given to the woman Bru refugee only. This grant in aid is in tune with the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) listed in Part A in which houses will be allotted only to the women.

Grant of Rs. 60 crore have been also issued as a ‘Part B’ allocation. So it is still ambiguous , why this grant is issued as a Part B allocation, when it is completely women centric . Budgetary allocations to  PMAY-U, urban housing programme,was issued as a ‘Part B’ grants till the year 2022-23, but in the year 2023-24, it has been issued as ‘Part A’ grants, with an amount of Rs. 25,103.03 Crore. 

Surprisingly ,Departments of Fisheries & Departments of Animal Husbandry & Dairy, have not allocate even a single penny in the budget estimates of gender budget in 2023–24. Under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) the Department of Fisheries & National Livestock Mission (NLM) under the Department of Animal Husbandry & Welfare , various training &  financial support schemes have formulated.

But in recent years, their allotment in gender budget has also been steadily decreasing. In the budget estimate for 2021–22, PMMSY receiv­ed allocations of Rs.1,000 crore. Rs. 350 crore was allocated to NLM, which were cut to Rs. 564 crore for PMMSY & Rs. 123 crore for NLM in the next BE of 2022–23. Also there is no allocation in the BE for the current fiscal year 2023–24. 

In the address for Union Budget 2023–24, Finance Minister made an announcement that women can deposit up to Rs. 2 lakh for a two-year period at a fixed interest rate of 7.5% with the Mahila Samman Bachat Patra, which will be available until March 2025 (Ministry of Finance 2023–24). 

The goal of this intervention is to cultivate saving habits among women.But, the lower limit of deposit is not defined and also the tax structure of this scheme is not known.

This target group is mainly a middle class women, who may not have so much savings to deposit in order to receive its benefits. Studies revealed that, Indian women do not  operate their finances independently. Their earnings are generally assumed as the integral part of family purse. 

INADEQUATE ALLOCATIONS 

The allocated funds under various schemes in previous gender budgets remained underutilized. For example under, Mission Shakti, for its two main schemes , SAMBAL & SAMARTHYA  Rs. 3,109.11 crore were allocated for in Part A of gender budget in 2022–23,  the total expenditure is recorded only for Rs. 2,244.93 crore for that year. 

The Department of Police was allocated a total amount of Rs. 896.32 crore in the budget estimate of 2022–23 but it has spent only Rs. 303.37 crore as mentioned in revised budget 2022–23, but still in 2023–24, they have received a funding of Rs.1,613.10 crore.  The Ministry of Women & Child Development had spent only Rs. 2,499.04 crore again­st the funds received of Rs. 3,343.85 crore in 2022–23 and have currently been allocated Rs. 4,031.02 crore. So underutilisation & underperformance are two hurdles in  the formulation of gender budget. 

According to A.K. Mehta, the gender budget has focused only on five main ministries to whom more than 80% allocation has been made. In the current year also the maximum allocation has been made to the Ministry of Rural Development of Rs. 88,578.89 crore which alone accounts for 39.68% of the whole gender budget. Other than that Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (14.31%), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (11.24%), Department of School Education and Literacy (10.03%) along with Ministry of Women and Child Development (8.98%).

These ministries & departments jointly have 44.56% in whole gender budget & the rest of 15.76% has been shared by other 31 ministries and departments. The PMAY-G & PMAY-U both the housing schemes, have included in the ‘Part A’,of gender budget. Collectively, both the schemes have received 66%, means  Rs. 79,590.03 crore for financial year 2023–24. 

Together, their appropriations account for 90.39% of total Part A and 35.65% of the entire gender budget for 2023–24. The question however raised that why these schemes were included in ‘Part A’, even when these  schemes are not exclusively benefiting to women. 

The gender budget does not include other women empowerment schemes such as the Jal Jeevan Mission & Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana specifically for women. In the current gender budget estimate 2023–24, the GoI has clubbed many schemes under one umbrella thereby reducing their impact & allocation. 

In 2021–22, the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP), Women Helpline, One Stop Centre, Ujjwala, etc, have been clubbed under SAMBAL & SAMARTHYA schemes.The allocations under these schemes recorded a fall of 1.2% from Rs.3,184.11 crore in 2022–23 to Rs. 3,143.06 crore in 2023–24.

The reduction in budgetary allocations, reduced the financial stability of women. India has about five lakh people identified as “others,” including transgenders (Narayanaswami 2022).But there is just a single scheme for transgenders, namely SMILE (Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood & Enterprise) which has been included in gender budget by Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment., with the allocation of Rs.6 crore. 

This allocation has been made under the Comprehensive Rehabilitation of Persons Engaged in the Act of Begging commonly applicable to the trans­gender community and the beggars.

THE WAY FORWARD

The gender gap in India can be seen reflected in, the lack of equal opportunities for women in the economy, education, health, governance and representation in senior positions of leadership.The gender budget requires numerous upgrades and reforms. The gender perspective in budgeting has not received the designated space as expected. To make it more effective, the allocation must be diversified so that it has a wider outreach  & inclusive  scope of stakeholders. 

Its necessary to spread awareness among other ministries, so that they should show  concern to be the part of gender budgeting. Its essential to overcome the underperformance and underutilization of funds allocated under gender budgeting. 

GoI should focus on the implementation Targeted Gender Budgeting (TGB) which could lead to better results. Inequality of access to resources is one of the primary reasons for women’s oppression & underdevelopment. Hence resource allocation, at every level, needs a gender-sensitive approach. Assertion of feminist strategy should be used as a policy tool to shape  up the framework of access to resources.