The Importance of Gender Budgeting Initiatives

To build a prosperous society, we must ensure that every citizen has equal access to opportunities and is treated at par with each other. This is why gender equality is extremely important for any society. However, as we have seen, despite rapid economic and technological growth in the past decades, there is still a lot of gender disparity in countries around the world, and in India. Governments around the world have been trying to tackle this problem in many ways, and gender budgeting is one of the tools that they use.

Simply put, gender budgeting means analysing the government budget through a gender lens to ensure that policies and initiatives carried out by the government are benefiting everyone equally, especially those who have been historically discriminated against because of their gender identity. In India, gender budgeting has gained momentum over the years, with its share in total expenditure rising from 4.5% in 2014 to 6.8% in FY25, as highlighted in this report.

Understanding gender budgeting

As mentioned above, gender budgeting is a tool or a perspective integrated into the budgeting process to ensure gender-specific impact of government initiatives. While it may be misunderstood as something where a separate budget is created to achieve gender equality and to invest in policies that help in achieving that, it is not about that. It is actually about bringing gender considerations in the centre while entire budget planning.

The roots of it can be traced back to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 after which the idea started becoming more mainstream. Many countries, including India, have since then adopted this method to move towards creating a more inclusive budget. Gender budgeting can help in many ways. Here are some of the examples:

1. Promoting gender equality – One of the most important functions of gender budgeting is to use public spending in a way that it supports marginalized genders. The resources are allocated to promote gender equality and bridge the many gaps that exist in our current system.
2. Economic growth – While it may seem like gender budgeting only helps a particular gender, it is not true. By bridging the gap between genders and providing them equal opportunity, it allows them to increase their participation in the labour force and, in turn, support overall economic growth of the country.
3. Empowerment of women – By investing in initiatives like women’s education, health, etc., the governments can create an opportunity where women can be empowered. It helps in the improvement of their participation in society, financial independence, better health, and much more.
4. Dealing with gender-based violence – Gender budgeting can allocate resources to programmes that prevent and address gender-based violence, such as domestic violence shelters, legal aid services, and awareness campaigns. These initiatives create safer environments for women and promote social cohesion.

Gender budgeting in India

Now, let us look at how India has been using gender budgeting as a robust policy tool to get all the benefits mentioned above. The concept was first introduced in India in the budget 2005-06 and since then, every year, the government publishes a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) which highlights the allocations made by the government for women-specific schemes.

We can understand the gender budgeting initiative in India by looking at in from three perspectives:

1. Women-specific schemes –  These schemes have 100% allocation for women and address their specific needs. Examples include the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save the Girl Child, Educate the Girl Child) campaign and the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), which provides financial assistance to pregnant and lactating mothers.
2. Allocation for women within general schemes – These schemes allocate at least 30 per cent of their budget for women. For Example, MGNREGA promotes women’s participation in the workforce and National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has specific budget allocation for maternal and child health.
3. Gender budgeting cells – The government has established GBCs in various ministries and departments to institutionalize gender budgeting. These cells are responsible for analyzing budgets from a gender perspective and ensuring that gender considerations are integrated into policy and programme design.

Impact of gender budgeting in India

While we have already looked at how gender budgeting impacts not just women but the overall economy, let us quickly see how it benefits a rapidly growing country like India. First of all, investment in women’s education initiatives have improved their literacy level and also enrolment of girls in schools. At the same time, a special focus has been given to women’s health initiatives and it has helped those living in villages and remote areas, especially pregnant women. Women’s participation in the labour force has also been improving steadily because of these initiatives and they have also received various social protections under different schemes. Overall, gender budgeting has created a safety net for women in India who have historically faced discrimination because of their gender.

Challenges and way forward

While we have talked about the positive impact of gender budgeting, we must also look at the many challenges that exist today and what we can do in the future to overcome these challenges.

1. First of all, there is still a lack of awareness among the policymakers, administrators and general public. Those who are responsible for the implementation of these schemes in the remotest areas are often biased. Therefore, we need to invest heavily in capacity building programmes to ensure everyone is aware of their rights and duties in this area.
2. Secondly, while India has adopted gender budgeting for years, there is still a shortage of data to meaningfully assess the impact of these initiatives. In the absence of data, it cannot be ascertained what is happening right and what needs to improve.
3. Thirdly, there is a lack of such initiatives in all the ministries, and it is only focused in some specific ministries like women and child development, rural development, and health and family welfare. The core idea of gender budgeting is to analyse the entire budget through a gender perspective, and it is important that all the ministries start adopting that perspective.

Therefore, as we move forward, India needs to deal with these challenges proactively and establish strong monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure that the initiatives do not just remain on paper.

Conclusion

Gender budgeting initiatives are a powerful tool for promoting gender equality and empowering women. By integrating gender perspectives into the budgeting process, governments can address systemic inequalities and create a more inclusive society. In India, gender budgeting has made significant strides in improving education, healthcare, employment, and social protection for women. However, there is still much work to be done to strengthen its implementation and expand its reach. Therefore, in future, India needs to focus on prioritizing spreading awareness, capacity building, establishing monitoring and evaluation systems, and improving data collection to make these initiatives stronger.