Is Gender Budgeting A Mere Lip Service?
Typically, India celebrates women empowerment in set ways. Bluntly said, the annual tokenism to International Women's Day, fostering assigned quotas in colleges/ campus placements/Panchayat seats, etc. make up for much of those celebrations. As an irritant, most of the seminars and discussions on the topic of women empowerment would be largely manels (male dominated panels). Periodic discussions are also held on various laws that have been reformed to give equal space to women and how more such initiatives are pending. Most voices are however somewhat pedantic speaking of the age-old so-called ways to clear gender gaps like "Boost her self-esteem....", "Shut down the negativity…"Support Women-Run Businesses....,Give her proper education.... , Be Open and Honest. ... etc etc.
Equal voting rights assigned in our Constitution has made the political class woo women vote bank through fiscal and other initiatives such as prohibition. The holistic approach i.e. to foster women as individuals making choices and being aware of themselves with a totally gender neutral approach has yet to find traction in their case for total mainstreaming or, rather, it is seeing early days in India.
It is all the more important that Gender responsive budgeting now play a critical role, as it focuses on inclusive programs and policies which are developed to give space to women. The gender budget of the Government is an exercise that applies a gendered-lens to the allocation and tracking of public funds. The focus is on improving women's welfare through government policies.
Previously, the emphasis was on maternal health and childcare primarily and then onto education and land rights. Now, policies need closer scrutiny, as they cater to the aspirations of 21st century India. For a nation which is working towards its developed nation status, it cannot have gender injustice, or play only an affirmative action towards gender. Gender budgeting allows the Union Budget to provide for outlays towards women empowerment while signaling India's commitment to inclusive growth and Nari Shakti.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) defines Gender Budgeting as a tool to achieve gender mainstreaming, to ensure that the benefits of development reach women, as much as men. The Government publishes a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) every year in the Union Budget. GBS is a reporting mechanism for ministries or departments to review their programs from a gender perspective and present information on allocations for women while addressing address gender disparities.
While gender-based budgeting has been a part of the Union budget since 2005-06, it has been given further push since 2014-15, with important steps taken towards gender mainstreaming and financial inclusion in policy actions across various spheres.
India has shown exemplary efforts around encouraging women entrepreneurship, be it the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY), Startup India and Stand-Up India schemes. Definitely, aspirations in rural India have taken a big jump: from wanting to be teachers or say workers in the local Anganwadis, women want more and in no small measure, this comes from government policies like Arambh undertaken by the Maharashtra government. So, we move gender policies away from giving free bus rides on buses to women on Rakshabandhan (yes, this appears in a State budget's Gender budgeting statement) to enabling inputs at an early age which give the girl child choices.
Gender budgeting and financial inclusion are also inextricably linked since by focusing policies on giving access to formal financial services inevitably has a positive impact on women's control over household resources by increasing their savings. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has been a powerful tool in enabling the process of opening over 56 per cent of the bank accounts in the name of women and that too in the rural and semi-urban areas. With the opening of such accounts, granular data emerges such as usage of such accounts, access to financial services, improved banking/fintech outreach which can tweak policies and programs. The process aids in self-awareness, natural rights and an inclusive society.
Recently, the World Economic Forum has recognised the need to enumerate women's participation in local government bodies in the Gender Gap Report. World Economic Forum (WEF) will count women's participation in local government bodies in its Global Gender Gap report after India's proven philosophy with it. This is a resounding positive for the 14 lakh grassroots women leaders, locally elected at panchayat level. WEF has also shown interest to study India's Gender Budget System. India, during its Presidency, has also asked to include gender concerns in the core agenda of the G20.
Wish list for more
'Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.'
- Former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan
But all this accolade and positive cheer about forward thinking is not enough for an empowered India. The largest challenge to gender-responsive budgeting is that the quantum of this remains in the low range of 4 per cent-5 per cent of the total expenditure comprising less than 1 per cent of the GDP. It would need a larger understanding of gender budgeting across all the functions of both the central and the state governments to avoid Multi-counting the Budget into gender bucket.
Any additional gender Budget allocation should be able to provide economic opportunities, entrepreneurial access including tax breaks or tax holidays, benefits in financial asset ownership, and better financial inclusion. Women led MSME can be a growth engine for a faster GDP growth. We must enhance women's access to education at all levels - primary to tertiary, and even in R&D, as a tool for a better societal engagement. We need to develop equitable public health systems, ensuring easy access for women to overall healthcare, with special focus on reproductive and sexual health preventive and proactive choices. This also allows to develop a future society with better health standards.
It would be useful instead to use gender budgeting in areas which can positively impact women's development, but those areas which have the "gender indivisible" issue. For example, having uninterrupted power supply and water on tap at home can reduce household chore time, as well as open up for their livelihood enhancement activities. It would also allow for better socio-economic participation of women.
Gender Budgeting has a sure role to play currently and maybe until India can proudly and naturally state that it has fully tapped its 'Nari Shakti' potential. That's when we can proudly say that we can deliver want she wants, and work in gender neutral budgets. In short, Gender budgeting is more than a platitude and is instead a policy commitment for gender justice.
Dakshita Das - Policy expert & former civil servant
Dr. Srinath Sridharan - Author, Policy Researcher & Corporate advisor
Twitter : @ssmumbai
