Gender Budgeting in India (UPSC Economy)

Gender budgeting applies a gender lens to the entire policy cycle – from formulation and allocation to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. It is not a separate women's budget but a methodology for mainstreaming gender into ordinary fiscal decision-making. India adopted gender budgeting in 2005-06, and the Gender Budget Statement has since become a fixture of every Union Budget, evolving in scope and ambition. In an economy where female labour-force participation and unpaid care work have long been policy blind spots, gender budgeting is the principal instrument of fiscal feminism at the Centre and in several states.

What Gender Budgeting Is

Gender budgeting analyses government expenditures, tax policies, and programmes for their differential impact on women and men. It rests on the recognition that:

• Women and men have different needs, endowments and constraints.
• Gender-neutral budgets can be gender-blind, reproducing existing inequalities.
• Positive allocation can close outcome gaps in education, health, work and assets.

The Five-Step Framework

1. Situation analysis of women and men – education, health, employment, wages, assets.
2. Policy review of existing schemes for their gender relevance and design.
3. Budget adequacy assessment – whether allocations match stated objectives.
4. Expenditure monitoring – whether funds reach intended beneficiaries.
5. Impact evaluation – whether the gender gap has narrowed.

India's Gender Budgeting Architecture

• 2005-06: Gender Budget Statement introduced.
• Part A: Schemes with 100 per cent allocation for women (women-specific) – SSY, PM Matru Vandana Yojana, working women hostels, Nirbhaya Fund, Ujjwala 2.0.
• Part B: Schemes with at least 30 per cent allocation earmarked for women (pro-women) – PMAY, NRLM, MGNREGS, mid-day meal.
• Part C (added 2024-25): Schemes with less than 30 per cent women-targeted outlay but with explicit gender outcomes.
• Gender Budgeting Cells: Every Union ministry and several state governments have dedicated GBCs as focal points.
• Ministry of Women and Child Development: Publishes handbooks, training material and the annual GBS.

Process Flow

The Finance Ministry's Budget Circular directs every ministry to review ongoing schemes, prioritise activities, and feed gender-disaggregated estimates into the GBS. The statement is tabled with the Union Budget and reproduced in Demands for Grants. The CAG audits compliance.

State-Level Practice

Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha have institutionalised gender budgeting. Kerala's gender budgeting document is the most detailed, with outcome indicators at the local-body level. Telangana and Tamil Nadu have recently expanded their GBS coverage.

Rationale and Benefits

• Gender equality: Positive discrimination corrects structural imbalances.
• Efficiency: Targeted allocations have higher returns – closing female education gaps lifts household welfare disproportionately.
• Inclusive growth: Women-led development multiplies demand, savings and human capital.
• Accountability: Parliament, CAG and civil society can scrutinise the GBS for implementation gaps.
• Fiscal feminism: Tax policy can target gender gaps – Sukanya Samriddhi's preferential returns, stamp duty rebates for property registered in women's names, tax-neutral gifts between spouses.
• Data discipline: Gender-disaggregated budgeting forces ministries to track beneficiaries by sex.

Challenges

• Part B double-counting: A scheme is classified as 30 per cent pro-women on notional grounds, not verified outcomes.
• Outcome versus outlay: Allocations do not automatically translate into outcomes; last-mile delivery gaps persist.
• Limited coverage: State subjects like health, education and police remain under-represented in the Union GBS.
• Unpaid care work: Budgeting still struggles to value and reallocate the care economy, which the Economic Survey 2023-24 estimated at 15-17 per cent of GDP if monetised.
• Shrinking FLFPR: Despite years of gender budgeting, Female Labour Force Participation Rate has only recently recovered to 41.7 per cent in PLFS 2023-24.
• Sub-national capacity: Not all states have functioning GBCs.

Latest developments (2024-26)

• Budget 2025-26: Gender Budget allocation crossed Rs 4.5 lakh crore, accounting for 8.8 per cent of total Union expenditure – the highest share ever. Part A crossed Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
• Nari Shakti push: The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (106th Constitutional Amendment, 2023) reserving one-third of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly seats for women will roll out post the next delimitation. The Budget has reinforced this political move with complementary fiscal allocations.
• Mahila Samman Savings Certificate: Women-only small savings instrument launched in Budget 2023, extended and expanded through 2028.
• PM Awas Yojana 2.0: Mandatory joint or sole women-ownership retained.
• MPI 2024: NITI Aayog‘s Multidimensional Poverty Index 2024 showed female-headed households experienced sharper poverty reduction between 2013-14 and 2022-23, validating the gender budgeting approach.
• 16th Finance Commission: Terms of Reference include incentives for states that incorporate gender and climate-sensitive expenditure in their budgets.
• Care economy recognition: Budget 2025-26 introduced a dedicated outlay for creches under Palna 2.0 and childcare infrastructure under Anganwadi upgradation, signalling early steps toward monetising unpaid care work.
• GST and PLI linkages: GST exemption on sanitary napkins continues; PLI schemes have built-in targets for female employment in textiles, electronics and food processing.

Way Forward

• Introduce outcome budgeting for Part A and Part B schemes with sex-disaggregated targets.
• Expand Part C classification to cover infrastructure, tax expenditure and subsidies.
• Care economy: Recognise and remunerate unpaid work through time-use surveys and creche infrastructure.
• State replication: Strengthen Gender Budgeting Cells in laggard states.
• Performance audits by CAG focused on women's outcomes, not just women's outlays.

UPSC Relevance

Gender budgeting sits across GS I (women's issues), GS II (welfare schemes) and GS III (government budgeting, inclusive growth). Mains prompts frequently ask candidates to critically evaluate India's gender budgeting experience or link it to female labour force participation. Prelims can test Part A/B/C distinctions, 2005 introduction year, and scheme-level earmarking rules. Candidates should memorise the FY26 allocation figures, the structure of the Gender Budget Statement, and flagship schemes under each part.