PIB -Joms Judgment July 04, 2025 | Legacy Ias Academy

Contents:

1. Breaking barriers: gender budgeting as a catalyst for inclusion

Breaking barriers: gender budgeting as a catalyst for inclusion

“Budgets are never gender neutral. Every issued rupid reflects a policy choice.” – Diane Elson

Gender budgeting is a policy strategy that integrates a gender perspective into all phases of the budgetary process to ensure that government spending meet the specific needs of women and promotes gender equality.

Relevance: GS 2 (Governance, Social Issues). GS 3 (Budgett)

Tax deployment and budgetary trends

• The allocation of gender budget rose from £0.98 Crore (2014-15) to £4.49 Crores (2025-26).
• The share in the total budget of the Union has increased from 5.46% to 8.86%The reflection of a stronger policy priority for women.
• Indicates consistent government intention to Include the money in tax planning.

Evolution of gender budgeting in India

Structural framework of the India gender budget

• Part A: 100% on women -oriented schedules (eg pregnancy benefits, female hiding places).
• Part B: Schedules with ≥30% allocation to women (eg national employment, health).
• Part C (added in 2024-25): Schedules with <30% allocation but with indirect benefits for women.
• Recording of part C shows itself in the direction of Extensive gender inclusiveness About all schedules.

TOP MINISTRIESTS that assign more than 30% to gender initiatives (FY 2025–26)

• Ministry of Women and Development of Children – 81.79%
• Department of Rural Development – 65.76%
• Food & Public Distribution department – 50.92%
• 10+ ministries now assign 30% of their budgets according to sex -sponsive schemes, signaling of mainstreaming of GRB over sectors.

Institutional mechanisms and capacity building

• Gender budget Set up in ministries/departments ensure sectoral integration.
• Mandatory GBS recording Provides transparency and accountability in tax documents.
• MOWCD leads through capacity building Manuals, toolkits and training workshops.
• The acceptance of GRB by States encourages contextual, decentralized solutions.

Use of technology and knowledge platforms

• Launch of the Gender budgeting knowledge hub (June 2025) As a digital repository.
• Aims to support policy practitioners, central/national departments and civil society.
• Facilitates knowledge exchange, cross-learning and improved policy design.

Impact-oriented shift

• Focus shifting from input (issued funds) to an impact assessment based on outcome.
• Insist on Sulious data collection Help with monitoring real beneficiaries.
• Evaluative tools help refine schemes based on effectiveness and reach.

Influence on policy design

• GRB has led to it Rise of women -focused schemes (Eg stand-up India, Beti Bachao).
• Existing diagrams are restructured with gender lenses (eg Mgnrega, Pmay).
• Encourage multi -sectoral approaches—Health, education, skilling, entrepreneurship.

Global recognition and comparative status

• Favorable compared to Bangladesh and Rwanda (ORF, 2020) in GRB institutionalization.
• India distinguishes itself for integration at several levels of board and policy rigor.
• However, still evolve according to aspects such as Targeted outcome assessment And intersectional budgeting.

Challenges forward

• Quality and reliability of Data with sex with sex Still uneven in the entire ministries.
• Tokenism Risk In part C schedules with a low impact unless accompanied by genderaudits.
• Need for Greater convergence With SDG 5 goals (gender equality) in the planning.
• Insufficient focus on Intra-gender differences (rural/urban, caste, disabled women).

Relevant data and facts

• 15th Finance Commission: £ 5,000 crore assigned (2021–26) for gender -based performance stimuli to states.
• Woman LFPR: Stood 37.0% (2023-24) by 23.3% (2017-18) -the reflects the impact of women -oriented schedules.
• PMMVY: Over 3.2 Crore Women Since 2017, I received £ 5,000 pregnancy benefit.
• SHGS (NRLM): 9 crore women in 83+ Lakh SHGS By March 2024 – key for empowerment in the countryside.
• Part C Gender -Tagging: New in 2024-25 instrument schemes such as JAL JEEVAN MISSION And Smart cities.
• Global Gender Gap Index 2024: India is on 127/146; Large gaps in economic and political atmospheres.
• MKSP: Reaches 37 Lakh female farmers – Integrates gender into the budgeting of agriculture.

Rwanda: Global Best Practice in GenderBudgettering

• Constitutional support: Gender equality and budgeting are required by law in the Constitution of Rwanda after 1994.
• Mandatory gender budget statements (GBS): All ministries must submit GBS in addition to annual budgets.
• Independent Gender Monitoring Office (GMO): Monitors compliance and evaluates the results between sectors.
• Sector-specific sex indicators: Each ministry uses tailor -made indicators (eg in health, education, agriculture).
• Gender-Responsive guidelines: Ministry of Finance Groefs GRPB guidelines for standardizing practices.
• High political representation: 64% of MPs are women—World’s highest female parliamentary presence.
• Outcome-driven allocation: Over 40% of Rwanda‘S budget Contributes directly to the results of gender equality.
• Women‘S Landbinking: Stood out 10% (2000) Unpleasant 26% (2020) by gender -oriented land reforms.
• Health impact: Maternal mortality fell with 70% (2000-2020) Due to targeted investments.
• Global model: Rwanda shows how legal mandates + monitoring + follow outcome, GRB effective, not symbolic.

Indian Case Study – Odisha & Kerala’s GRB models

• Odisha was the first state to one Gender budgeting mission (2020) With technical support of UN women.
• Integrated Gender budgeting in the government budget circular; Departments submit annual gender budget statements.
• Developed sector -specific guidelines for gender budget and connected them with outcome budgets.
• Kerala institutionalized GRB by its Planning board and local authorities (Panchayats) since the beginning of 2000.
• The GRB initiatives of Kerala have led Women -oriented microplans In Health, Livelihoods and Care Economy (eg Kudumbashree).

Legal connections – Constitution and gender budgeting

• Article 14: Before the law – GRB, guarantees equal access to government resources.
• Article 15, paragraph 3): Facilitates special provisions for women and children – the basis for targeted budgetary support.
• Article 39 (A): Calls for the right right to sufficient resources of living for men and women.
• Article 39 (D): Lawyers for Equal Wage for equal work-relevant for work-related schemes.
• Article 42: The state assignment to guarantee pregnancy lighting – implemented by schemes such as PMMVY under gender budget.

SDG Mapping – Gender Budget & Global Goals

• SDG 5 (gender equality): GRB helps achieve goals such as the termination of discrimination (5.1) and leadership participation (5.5).
• SDG 1 (no poverty): Women -oriented schedules (eg NRLM, DBT) tackle feminized poverty immediately.
• SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth): Supports the access of women to employment, credit and skills training.
• SDG 5.a: Ensures the equal access of women to economic assets such as country and finance – tailored to SHG and MKSP goals.
• GRB also supports cross sdgs Such as Health (SDG 3), Education (SDG 4) and Water (SDG 6).

Evaluation – CAG, Niti Aayog & Un Women findings

• CAG (2022) listed gaps in coordination between ministries and gender budget cells; suggested better monitoring.
• Niti Aayog‘SDG India Index Includes one Gender equality indexThat uneven GRB Adoption about states shows.
• UN women (2021) discovered that while the allocations rise, Follow an impact And Beneficiary targeting Stay weak.
• Studies emphasize that many ministries are still dealing with a formalityNot linked to budgeting of the outcome.
• Recommendations include reinforcement Data with sex with sex and perform regularly Genderaudits of schedules.

Forward

• Integrate GRB in the medium term expenditure frameworks (MTEF) for long -term impact.
• Institutionalize Gender outcome budgets In addition to only following input.
• Use genderaudits and social audits for Real-time monitoring and accountability.
• Usage data tools (AI/ml) Use for predictive analyzes and schedule targeting.