Women-centric budgets a job half-done

Prem Chowdhry
Author and former academic, Delhi University

Gender-responsive budgeting was adopted in India in 2005, and since then, there have been steady budgetary allocations for various programmes specific to women. These women-related programmes are now an essential part of every budget document. This year has also not been an exception.

Both at the Centre and in the states, ‘women’s empowerment’ is the key focus area. Last week, the Delhi government, while presenting its budget, claimed that the ‘role of women is the key to the progress’ of Delhi, and hence, providing them with accessible healthcare and education is a must in order to empower them and give them a larger role in the economy. For this, they promised 500 anganwadi centres and 100 mahila mohalla clinics in various parts of the city. Similar claims have been made by the Centre in the Union Budget 2021-22, which allocated funds to its various schemes covering the Integrated Child Development Services, anganwadi services, Poshan Abhiyan, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and the National Creche Scheme.

This type of gender budgeting, which applies a gender lens to expenditure and prioritises gender-specific outcomes, has emerged as a popular way for governments across the world to empower women and improve gender equality. What is behind the loud proclamations of ‘women’s empowerment’ being made in our country not only by the Delhi and the Union government, but almost all state governments?

An analysis of the political situation shows that one of the major reasons for this close attention being given to women is due to their rising importance as voters. There has been a steady and sharp decline in the gender bias in voting over time. In particular, the sex ratio of voters (the number of women voters to every 1,000 men voters) increased significantly from 715 in the 1960s to 883 in the 2000s. This phenomenon of declining gender bias in voting is across all the states, including the traditionally backward ‘BIMARU’ states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This decline is solely driven by the dramatic increase in women’s participation in the elections since the 1990s, whereas participation of men has remained unchanged. Also, it is now openly acknowledged that women voters vote differently from men and have a remarkable effect on election outcomes. During my extensive field work in Haryana, I found women voting differently from what they had been instructed to do by their menfolk.

It is not without significance that during election campaigns, leaders of various political parties are especially vociferous about women’s empowerment. Yet, the Women’s Reservation Bill — envisaging 33% quota for women in the Lok Sabha and in all Legislative Assemblies — is still stuck despite being introduced in Parliament 13 years ago. It underlines the reluctance of political parties to accommodate women in politics. Both the BJP and the Congress have a poor record when it came to giving election tickets to women. In 2019, the BJP had given tickets to 429 candidates, of which 53 were women (12.3%); the Congress named 387 candidates, of which 47 were women (12.1%). This abysmal figure is revealing as all political parties, at one stage or the other, have extended support to the Women’s Reservation Bill.

At present, India is at the 149th spot on a list of 193 countries ranked according to percentage of women legislators elected to the national Parliament. India’s neighbouring countries fare relatively better, with Bangladesh at the 97th spot and Pakistan at No. 101.

The ruling BJP has taken several steps towards what in its view constitutes women’s empowerment. This has involved unveiling several pro-women schemes towards fulfilling their basic needs. As these steps do not include their political empowerment, women are compelled to remain consumers and not initiators or decision-makers.

If women were included in the political policy-making process, their recommendations towards their own empowerment through the budgetary allocations may well have been different, given the extraordinary times that we are living in. The pandemic has witnessed an unequal impact on women not only in terms of securing food and nutrition, employment and livelihood opportunities, increased burden of unpaid work but also increased incidence of violence. It is in this backdrop that we look at some of the provisions made for women in this Budget, which remain skewed and ineffective.

Under the Nirbhaya Fund (scheme for safety of women), there is an allocation of Rs 10 crore for the current fiscal year. This ‘safety’, however, does not include interventions to address domestic abuse such as shelter homes and legal aid. In the face of increased violence, the direly needed women’s helpline and ‘one-stop centre’ are missing from the current Budget. Budget documents also reveal a cut in the funds allocated for the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD). Moreover, under Swachh Bharat, (Clean India, Healthy India), the focus is mainly on proper waste management and clean air in urban centres, excluding aspects like public toilets that are important for women venturing out of their homes. These are just a few examples of what could have been rectified and achieved if women had more representatives of their own in Parliament.

Women’s empowerment can be defined as promoting their sense of self-worth, their ability to determine their own choices, and their right to influence social change for themselves and others. Without political representation being assured for them, it’s no wonder that women-centric schemes championing their empowerment appear to be a vote-catching strategy more than anything else.