Gender Budgeting is a tool for gender mainstreaming which uses Budget as an entry point to apply gender lens to the entire policy process. It is concerned with gender-sensitive formulation of legislation, policies, plans, programmes and schemes; allocation and collection of resources; implementation and execution; monitoring, review, audit and impact assessment of programmes and schemes; and follow-up corrective action to address gender disparities. In a nutshell, Gender Budgeting covers analysing various economic policies of the Government from a gender perspective.
FIVE-STEP FRAMEWORK FOR GENDER BUDGETING
Step 1: An analysis of the situation for women and men
Step 2: Analysis of present policies and schemes
Step 3: Find out adequacy of the budget allocations to implement the gender-sensitive policies and programmes
Step 4: Monitor whether the money was spent as per the requirements.
Step 5: An assessment of the impact of the policy/ programme/scheme and the extent to which the gender gap has been addressed
PRESENT STATUS IN INDIA
It has been introduced in India in 2005. All the ministries and Departments have been mandated to set up Gender Budgeting Cells as focal points for mainstreaming gender through the tool of Gender Budgeting. Further, the Ministry of Women and Child Development developed a Gender Budgeting Handbook and a Manual in 2007 for training the officers of these Gender Budgeting Cells.
Several State Governments have also implemented Gender Budgeting with significant success. States such as Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and many others have taken significant steps to institutionalise Gender Budgeting to address gender gaps.
PROCESS OF GENDER BUDGETING IN INDIA
The Budget Circular issued by the Ministry of Finance requires Ministries and Departments to review all ongoing schemes to determine their relevance, prioritise their activities and schemes and furnish estimates of expenditure. Additionally, all Ministries/ Departments are required to prepare a Gender Budget Statement. The Gender Budget Statement presents information regarding programmes/schemes that are:
(a) women-specific (in which 100% of allocation is earmarked for women) and
(b) pro-women (in which at least 30% provision is for women).
RATIONALE BEHIND GENDER BUDGETING
- Promote Gender Equality through positive discrimination in favour of women.
- Promote higher efficiency through adequate provisions for women.
- Needs and requirements of Genders differ. Gender neutral budgets ignore the gender specific impacts of Budgets.
IMPORTANCE OF GENDER BUDGETING IN ADDRESSING GENDER GAP
- Identification of the needs of women and reprioritising/increasing expenditure to meet these needs
- Not only ensures higher budgetary allocation, but also ensures that efficient utilisation of resources
- Participatory and inclusive as it involves inputs from stakeholders such as women groups and NGOs in identification of problem, allocation of resources, social audit of schemes and policies etc.
- Formulation of Taxation policies to address gender inequalities in property ownership, unequal contribution to unpaid labour within the household, gender differentials in wages, etc. Examples include Sukanya Samridhi Account, Lower stamp duty for registration of property in the name of females etc.
- Leads to formulation of special programmes for the benefit of women
- Higher transparency and accountability