Dear FM, As a woman, here's why Budget 2013 will not help me

Dear Finance Minister,

After all the talks from the government about ‘women empowerment’, I was expecting a lot from this year’s budget, but you disappointed me.

As part of the union budget, you said today that India will set up a special Public Sector Unit bank solely for women, and to support businesses run by women. You also proposed a Rs 1000-crore initial capital for the bank. Noble idea. But what I really want to know is this. How is that going to help?

Will this ‘all-women’ bank give me more interest rates on my savings account? Or will it give me cheaper loans? If it does neither, what’s the point really?

Last time I checked, banking didn’t differ much based on whether you were a man or a woman. We find it to be equally easy or difficult. And it’s not like I feel particularly unsafe there rather than anywhere else. Then, why this exclusive bank?

You said that the new bank aims to reduce gender bias by offering loans to women-run businesses and self-help groups (SHGs). Yes, I agree that there is a concern of gender bias in loan appraisals, but that cannot be solved by creating an exclusive women bank.

You could have increased the share of loans to women, you could have also trained/ sensitised the male bankers and you could have asked banks to ensure adequate women officers in the banking credit machinery by fixing a ratio of women officers to men.

You said, “Recent incidents have cast a long, dark shadow on our liberal and progressive credentials. As more women enter public spaces – for education or work or access to services or leisure – there are more reports of violence against them. We stand in solidarity with our girl children and women.” And therefore, you proposed to set up ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ and allocated Rs 1,000 crore to it.  You also proposed to provide an additional sum of 200 crore to Ministry of Women and Child Development to design schemes for women belonging to vulnerable groups.

Very populist I must say. Thank you sir, but do tell us how this going to be used?

Last year, Ministry of Women and Child Development was allocated Rs 18,500 crore and the year before Rs 12, 650 crore. Have they been able to improve or make our society secure? No, Sir.

From access to healthcare and education to land and property rights, from threats of physical and sexual violence to harmful customary practices such as female foeticide and ‘honour killings’, Indian women face a plethora of challenges. What we need is education, for both male and female. What we need is fast-track courts for crimes against women. What we need is development at the grassroot level– one of them being more toilets for women. And what we really need is security. Maybe, you could allocate more funds to increase policing on the streets, as well as more female police officers.

Investment is also needed to help implement laws such as the domestic violence law. Maybe, more money for rehabilitation and counselling for victims of physical and sexual crimes such as acid attacks, trafficking and rape, would be a better idea.

Thank you for your very populist budget, but you must know it won’t help us much. Most women will still be groped on the streets - perhaps even on the way to your all female bank, men standing in crowded buses will still make those lunges at our thighs, chest or butt, they will keep gesturing from a passing cab and complaints about molestation will still be taken lightly.

Maybe it’s time to put some action where your words and your money seem to be.

Yours faithfully,

A concerned woman