Gender Budgeting in India: Benefits & Challenges

• Context (PIB): The Union Budget 2025–26 allocated a record ₹4.49 lakh crore, four times the 2014–15 figure. This marks a strong, sustained push toward gender equity in public spending.

What is Gender Budgeting?

• Gender Budgeting refers to a fiscal policy tool that analyses how government budgets impact women and aims to bridge gender-based gaps in resource distribution, access, and outcomes.
• It is not about separate budgets for women, but about mainstreaming gender priorities across all schemes and policies.

India’s Gender Budgeting Framework

• Introduced in 2005–06 as part of the Union Budget, the Gender Budget Statement (GBS) institutionalized the practice of gender-responsive budgeting.
• Three-Part Framework:
  1. Part A: Schemes with 100% allocation exclusively for women.
  2. Part B: Schemes with at least 30% of the budget earmarked for women.
  3. Part C (Introduced in 2024–25): Schemes with less than 30% allocation towards women and girls, enabling a holistic representation of all women-related spending.
• Gender Budgeting Knowledge Hub: Launched in June 2025 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) as a centralized digital repository for policies, data, and training materials.

Positive Impacts

• Institutionalisation: Mandatory inclusion of Gender Budget Statements in Union Budgets ensures accountability.
• Capacity Building: Training manuals and handbooks published by MoWCD have strengthened technical implementation.
• State Engagement: Increasing adoption of GRB models at the state level fosters decentralized gender inclusion.
• Monitoring Focus: Shift from input-based tracking to impact-based outcome measurement, including sex-disaggregated data collection.
• Policy Innovation: GRB has influenced the design of women-centric schemes (e.g., Mission Shakti), enhancing both economic and social empowerment.

Challenges

• Implementation Gaps: Schemes often lack outcome-oriented gender metrics.
• Low Allocations in Some Ministries: Not all departments reflect proportional commitment.
• Data Deficiency: Insufficient sex-disaggregated data continues to hamper evaluation.
• Skewed Focus: Concentration on select welfare schemes may overlook cross-sector gender impacts (e.g., transport, energy, environment).
• Need for Institutionalization at Local Levels: Panchayats and municipal bodies often lack awareness and capacity to integrate gender concerns.

Way Forward

• Strengthen Gender Budget Cells across central and state levels with trained personnel and performance targets.
• Mandate outcome-based assessments across schemes, not just allocation tracking.
• Expand Part C coverage to enhance visibility of indirect benefits to women.
• Promote gender mainstreaming in non-traditional sectors like climate adaptation, STEM education, and digital infrastructure.
• Leverage the Knowledge Hub for inter-ministerial learning and cross-state collaboration.
• Encourage citizen feedback and participatory planning, especially involving grassroots women’s organizations.