Budgeting the gender disparity
India ranks 114 out of 142 nations in the global gender gap index. The index signifies the gender disparity in the country and the gross inequality prevailed in a 3rd largest economy (in terms of PPP) of the world. The ranking is based upon the parameters such as: education, participation in decision making process, economic participation and opportunity, health and survival, and political empowerment. Violence against women still finds much space in newspaper and becomes order of the day both in public as well as private places.
In response to the gender inequality government come up with several safeguards to prevent the atrocities against women and to provide equal opportunity to bring them at par with men. One such measure is gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) started in 2005 which also indicates the government’s sensitivity regarding gender. So far 57 government departments have gender budgeting cell. The analysis of budget estimates shows that the allocation for women as a proportion of budget is constant in the last decade at 5.5%. Also it is observed that there is under reporting of estimates of expenditure or grants by the ministries to the government.
The ministry of women and child development allocates 87% of its budget for the integrated child development schemes (ICDS) and only 5% is kept for exclusive schemes for women. The UN convention on the elimination of all forms Discrimination against women (CEDAW) time and again pitched for strengthening the institution like National commission for women (NCW) and the other working organization at the state level. It also emphasized on increasing the budget for the Ministry and the gender budgeting across all the states. The post-2015 development agenda would have a renewed focus on the gender imbalance and reviews the performance of countries as per the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+20) of which India is a signatory.
There are schemes for the welfare of women but are not funded adequately, the domestic violence act is a case in point. Scheme aimed at restoring justice to the rape victims also seen a reduced allocation. Then there are number of schemes related to women serving the same purpose and none of them receives the required funds. There is hence a need to converge all such schemes and bring a comprehensive policy that cover particular problem and then funding it adequately.
Participative budgeting:
Every year the pre-budget session includes the consultations of various women right’s group organized by the finance ministry to inculcate the voices of women. A new change this year includes the dialogue with UN women along with Ministry of women and child to discuss the key issues.
Mahila Panchayat is one such initiative which is commendable in all respect, 50% reservation of seats for women at the Panchayat level would enhance the participative democracy focusing women. Housing schemes in the name of women, 33% mandatory jobs in MGNREGS, and the recent launch of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao schemes would help address the imbalance in the society. Rashtriya Mahila Bank started as an all Mahila Bank focused on helping the women to get easy funds to initiate self-employment and to access the banking facility.
There is a need to ensure the allocation to the social sectors such as health, education and sanitation as it effects women the most. It is now globally recognized that women are the largest unpaid care taker along with the burden of household chores. Hence there is a need to redistribute, reduce, and recognize the burden of unpaid work and allocate sufficiently in the social sector which already gained momentum worldwide.
