Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is one such fiscal instrument that assesses public spending to identify and address gender discrepancies in the planning and policy making processes.
Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is a crucial strategy that governments should adopt to promote gender equality and social justice in their countries. GRB is a fiscal instrument that helps identify gender disparities in public spending and policymaking processes. It allows policymakers to analyze budgets through a gender lens, with the aim of taking corrective measures to address gender inequalities. In India, the Ministry of Finance has been issuing Gender Budget Statements (GBS) as part of the Union Budget Circular since 2005-06.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
The Gender Responsive Budgeting In India
The Gender Budget Statement gives a snapshot of expenditure on women and girls in different sectors. As of 2022, 57 Ministries have set up Gender Budget Cells and schemes/programmes of 41 Central Ministries/Departments are reported in the GBS as compared to 9 Ministries/Departments in 2005-06. However, India’s Gender Budget has remained less than 1% of the nation’s GDP, and only around 5% of the total Union expenditure is earmarked for women and girls. Despite this, some ministries have consistently performed well in capturing women-related allocations, such as health, education, rural development, and water & sanitation.
One of the challenges in implementing GRB in India is the lack of good quality gender disaggregated data. Ministries and departments that do not capture gender disaggregated information of their schemes/programs will not be able to assess the targeted expenditure on women and girls. Ramping up data systems by factoring in gender is an urgently required intervention. In addition, it is essential to go beyond gender binaries to mainstream the transgender community into policy decisions and adopt an intersectional approach to ensure the inclusion of all social identities.
GRB is not limited to sectors traditionally considered “gender divisible,” but it has significant impacts on women’s growth and development. For example, the power sector is essential as access to affordable, uninterrupted electricity can reduce the time women spend on household chores, giving them more time to pursue education, income generation opportunities, and recreational activities, improving their quality of life. Similarly, considering women-specific needs in transportation and infrastructure planning can greatly improve women’s mobility and access to public spaces, which is integral to women’s economic participation. Policies that consider gender needs in these indivisible sectors are examples of GRB adoption and have a notable impact on women.
The GRB exercise continues to be ad-hoc in nature, falling short of providing a sustainable mechanism that could bring about concrete change. There is a need for institutionalizing GRB within all Ministries by employing a comprehensive strategy, including steps like in-depth gender analysis of the sector, identification of priority areas, and setting of short and long-term targets. Ensuring adequate allocation of resources should be the culmination of such an effort. Despite its shortcomings, GRB provides an avenue for mainstreaming gender at different levels of planning and policymaking. Deepening the GRB process would require closing existing gaps and building institutional capabilities with a vision to bring about gender transformative reforms.
In conclusion, gender-sensitive planning backed by commensurate allocation of funds is a critical strategy that governments must adopt to fulfill their commitment to constitutionally enshrined values of equality and social justice. GRB is one such fiscal instrument that assesses public spending to identify and address gender discrepancies in the planning and policy making processes. The Indian government has made efforts to integrate gender concerns into the policymaking process through the five-year Plan framework and the formal introduction of GRB in India. However, more needs to be done to mainstream gender and ensure that all sectors prioritize gender needs to promote gender equality in the country.
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