Gender Budgeting

Introduction

• Gender Budgeting is the process of budget making keeping a gender perspective in policy formulation, its implementation and review.
• It entails dissection of the Government budgets to establish its gender differential impacts and to ensure that gender commitments are translated into budgetary commitments.
• Australia is the pioneer in Gender Budgeting which was adopted way back in the mid 1980s. Since then, many countries have adopted it. 
• Since 2005-06, India has institutionalized Gender Budgeting by introducing a Gender Budget Statement (GBS). 
• The GBS captures the total quantum of resources earmarked for women in a financial year. 
• Budget 2016-17 recognized the importance of gender-based budgeting by saying-“The rationale of Gender Budgeting arises from the recognition of the fact that the national budget impacts various sections of the society differently.”

Components of Gender Budgeting

• Targeted expenditure on women and girls.
• Pro-women allocations as part of composite expenditure schemes with a significant women’s component.
• Residual public expenditures which have gender-differential impacts. 

Merits of Gender Budgeting

• It will lead to greater participation of women in the economy.
• It will help in women empowerment.
• It boosts the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 

Demerits of Gender Budgeting

• Gender budgeting is a complex process. 
• Considering the case of Integrated Child Development Services, it was given 100 % allocation for women, but it benefits both male and females. It is hard to differentiate between beneficiaries in many schemes.