 "Hostel initiative, Rs 3 lakh crore for girl-centric schemes, and more: How Budget 2024 provides a boost to women")
As she began her Budget speech on Tuesday, July 23, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Modi 3.0 government’s four focus areas continue to be the poor, women, youth and farmers.
Presenting her seventh consecutive Union Budget in Parliament, she announced that the government has kept capital expenditure target unchanged from the interim Budget at Rs 11.11 lakh crore.
The Union Budget for 2024–25 is being considered the action plan for the third Modi term to outline a roadmap towards India’s development in the next five years.
What is gender budgeting?
Gender budgeting is a tool for gender mainstreaming, applying a gender lens to the entire policy process, according to NDTV.
Its objective is to distribute public funds in a way that advances gender equality and takes into account the particular requirements of each gender. Gender-sensitive formulation, resource allocation, and ongoing monitoring are necessary to address the vulnerabilities that women encounter at every stage of their lives.
The concepts of gender and sex are distinguished in the Ministry of Woman and Child Development’s (MWCD) handbook on gender budgeting. Gender is defined in the handbook as duties, responsibilities, and expectations that are socially and culturally formed and reflect changing societal standards. The physical characteristics and biological distinctions between males and females are referred to as “sex.”
The MWCD at the national level is one of the nodal authorities that leads the implementation of gender budgeting, according to Business Standard.
The implementation of gender budgets in states and Union Territories is also under the purview of the departments of finance, planning, women and child development/social welfare, and women.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsState and Union Territory district subcommittees for women’s empowerment are also operating to oversee and achieve programme goals. Having at least one gender specialist in these centres is also required.
India adopted its first gender budget in 2005-06, marking a significant step towards addressing gender disparities in resource allocation.
What has been allotted to India’s women?
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted the four main focus points: “Garib” (Poor), “Yuva” (Youth), “Annadata” (Farmer), and “Mahilayen” (Women).
Sitharaman on Tuesday announced that the government would be setting out a Rs 3 lakh crore budget outlay towards women and girl-centric schemes.
“The government is allocating over Rs 3 lakh crore for schemes benefiting women, and girls,” she said, adding that the Centre would set up women-specific skilling programmes to boost women’s participation in the workforce.
To promote women’s participation in the workforce, the finance minister said the Centre would also set up working women’s hostels, as well as crèches.
“We will facilitate higher participation of women in the workforce by setting up working women hostels in collaboration with industry and establishing crèches. In addition, the partnership will seek to organise women-specific skilling programmes, and promotion of market access for women SHG enterprises,” Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.
#Budget2024 | Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says, "Working women hostels will be set up. Higher participation of women in workforce to be promoted through hostels and creches...Our government will bring National Cooperation Policy for overall development. Our government… pic.twitter.com/b1jK7Hl3oU
— ANI (@ANI) July 23, 2024
Moreover, to achieve social justice comprehensively, the saturation approach of covering all eligible people through various programmes, including those for education and health, will be adopted to empower them by improving their capabilities.
“Implementation of schemes meant for supporting economic activities by craftsmen, artisans, self-help groups, scheduled caste, schedule tribe and women entrepreneurs, and street vendors, such as PM Vishwakarma, PM SVANidhi, National Livelihood Missions, and Stand-Up India, will be stepped up,” she said.
Speaking about stamp duty, Sitharaman also encouraged states that continue to charge high stamp duty to moderate rates for all groups and consider further lowering duties for properties purchased by women.
The statement coincides with India’s ongoing efforts to increase the number of women employed in the country. According to The Times of India, a gender-based study of payroll data for May 2024 indicates that, of the new members added in that month, almost 0.24 million were female, representing a 12.1 per cent increase over May 2023.
According to the ministry, there has been a wider trend towards a more varied and inclusive workforce, as seen by the fact that the net addition of female members during the month was 17.2 per cent higher than in May 2023, at around 0.36 million.
Presenting the budget, Sitharaman also announced Rs 1.48 lakh crore for education, employment and skills in the country.
What was the gender budget for 2023-24?
The budget allocated to women in 2023–2024 increased by 4.3 per cent to Rs 2.23 trillion, or 4.9% of the overall budget. Rural housing (Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana) received the largest budget of Rs 54,487 crore under the gender budget.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, worth Rs 25,000 crore, has also been incorporated by the government within the gender budget.
The Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan, the Flexible Pool for RCH and Health System Strengthening, the National Health Programme and National Urban Health Mission, the Samagra Shiksha scheme, the Samarthya scheme for women’s empowerment, and the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) are among the other programmes covered by the gender budget.
Nearly Rs 45,000 crore was the value of the five schemes.
What does the Economic Survey say?
The Economic Survey report and the latest Union Budget seemed to be in harmony.
From Rs 97,134 crore in Financial Year 2014, the gender budget has consistently increased, reaching Rs 3.1 lakh crore in FY 2025, the Economic Survey 2023-24 said on Monday.
This marks a 38.7 per cent rise compared to FY24 and a 218.8 per cent increase over FY14, now constituting 6.5 per cent of the total Union Budget.
From 2014-15, the sex ratio at birth (SRB) at the national level rose to 930 in 2023-24 (provisional), while the maternal mortality rate fell from 130 per lakh live births in 2014-15 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20.
Institutional deliveries over the last decade increased from 78.9 per cent in 2015-16 to 88.6 per cent in 2019-21, the data showed.
The government attributed these developments to schemes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Vikas Yojana, the participation of women among those trained has increased from 42.7 per cent in FY16 to 52.3 per cent in FY24.
In ITIs and National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs), the participation of women went up from 9.8 per cent in FY16 to 13.3 per cent in FY24.
In the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), it went up from 7.7 per cent in FY17 to 20.8 per cent in FY24.
The Women in Science and Engineering-KIRAN (WISE KIRAN) programme has supported nearly 1,962 women scientists from 2018 to 2023.
The Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) rose to 37 per cent in 2022-23 from 23.3 per cent in 2017-28, the survey said.
Rural India contributed largely to this, with nearly three-fourths of the women workers engaged in agriculture-related work.
“… The rise in LFPR needs to be tapped into higher value-addition sectors suitable to the needs and qualifications of the rural female workforce, and agro-processing emerges as a good contender,” the survey says.
Additionally, the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (NRLM), the government’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) programme, covers more than 89 million women and 8.3 million SHGs.
“Around 68 per cent of the loans have been sanctioned to women entrepreneurs under PM Mudra Yojana, and 77.7 per cent of the beneficiaries under Stand-Up India are women, as of May 2024,” the Survey added.
With inputs from agencies
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