Gender budgeting 2022: the vision of NariShakti only on paper?

In the budget speech 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned that India
will now focus on shifting from women’s development to “women-led development” and
harnessing the ‘NariShakti’ of our nation (Nikore, 2022). However, Chandra (2022) mentions
that the word women was mentioned only six times in the budget speech . The questions that
then comes forth, is apart from this pompous sounding ideology, has Budget 2022 done anything
concrete to improve the socio-economic conditions of women? What is gender budgeting?
Council of Europe’s definition states that “gender budgeting is an application of gender
mainstreaming in the budgetary process. It involves conducting a gender-based assessment of
budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process, and
restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to promote gender equality” (European Institute
for Gender Equality, n.d.).
Gender budget has been released as a part of every Union budget in India since 2005-06.
The statement contains a list of all funds demarcated towards centrally sponsored schemes that
bridge the gender gap. To get an idea of the gender budget numbers - historically, it has always
remained below 5% of total expenditure and less than 1% of the GDP (Nikore, 2022). Though
gender budget has been an explicitly demarcated segment of the budget, gender budgeting as a
tool has hardly penetrated economic policymaking in India. The policies announced in the last
two gender budgets have hardly been reflective of the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately
impacting women. Female employment remains at about 9% lower than pre-pandemic levels,
while male employment has bounced back to 2019 figures (Kumar, 2021).
Women across income categories have also borne the brunt of the shadow pandemic -
increased domestic violence, the extra burden of unpaid care work, learning losses for female
students, and exacerbated the digital divide. Women have substantially lesser access to the
internet and gadgets - only 21% of Indian women use mobile internet compared to 42% of men,
according to the 2020 GSM Association report (GSM Association, 2020). Public transport on
which women relied heavily was shut down, access to healthcare services took a hit, with
Anganwadi centres facing prolonged closure. Though the 2022 budget announced plans for
200,000 new upgraded Anganwadi centres with better infrastructure, the funds allocated for the
Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan schemes under which Anganwadis function have seen only a
marginal 0.7% hike. The fund allocations are not large enough to materialize the vision for
NariShakti. No relief schemes have been announced for the Anganwadi workers who have been
demanding rightful recognition of their work through minimum wages and not just an
honorarium (Chandra, 2022).
Additionally, schemes that have been critical to women, including the MNREGA, NSAP
(National Social Assistance Scheme) and other welfare schemes, have witnessed a cut in funds
from 3.2% to 2.5% of the budget. Thus the principle of gender budgeting that decisions should
look at gendered impacts is facing sheer neglect with expenditure on critical welfare programs
being cut down. 80% of the Gender Budget 2022 consisted of just ten schemes, with PMAY
(Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) accounting for 25% and MGNREGA at 15%. The gender budget
did have positives; with increased allocations to the Samagra Shiksha school education scheme
(25% increase) and National Urban and Rural Livelihood Missions (13% increase) (Government
of India, 2022).
Gender budgeting in India needs to extend to gender mainstreaming, i.e., pursuing gender
equality, not as an end but as an approach in itself - ensuring that ministries report gendered fund
allocations and gender-disaggregated data on the impact and results of the policies pursued.
Gender mainstreaming should not be restricted only to a select few ministries and schemes but
rather ensure that mainstreaming penetrates all levels of planning and policymaking. Social
protection, skill transfers and digital literacy will emerge as key areas to realize the NariShakti
vision in reality, where the current Union Budget remains silent.

References

Chandra, J. (2022, February 1). Union Budget 2022 | Budget for women, children shrinks further
this year. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/business/budget/union-budget-2022-
budget-for-women-children-shrinks-further-this-year/article65013062.ece
European Institute for Gender Equality. (n.d.). What is gender budgeting?
https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gender-budgeting/what-is-gender-
budgeting
Government of India. (2022, February). GENDER BUDGET 2022–23.
https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/doc/eb/stat13.pdf
GSM Association. (2020, September). The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2020.
https://www.gsma.com/r/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GSMA-State-of-Mobile-Internet-
Connectivity-Report-2020.pdf
Kumar, M. (2021, August 3). India’s female labour participation rate falls to 16.1% as
pandemic hits jobs. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-female-labour-
participation-rate-falls-161-pandemic-hits-jobs-2021-08-03/
Nikore, M. (2021, February 8). India cut its gender budget outlay by 26% despite Covid-19’s
disproportionate impact on women. Scroll.In. https://scroll.in/article/986181/india-cut-
its-gender-budget-outlay-by-26-despite-covid-19s-disproportionate-impact-on-women
Nikore, M. (2022, February 4). Budget 2022: Did it deliver on #NariShakti and Women-Led
development? SheThePeople TV.
https://www.shethepeople.tv/top-stories/opinion/budget-2022-women-led-development/
Rao, A. (2022, February 2). Gender Budget For 2022–23 Marginally Slips To 4.3%.
NDTV.Com. https://www.ndtv.com/business/gender-budget-for-2022-23-marginally-
slips-to-4-3-2745024