Transcript Analysis of Budget w.r.to Gender

Resource Management,
Financial Commitment and
Monitoring
Organised by
National Commission for Women For
Orientation cum Planning Meeting relating to National
Policy for Empowerment of women
On 22-8-2003
By Vibhuti Patel
Centre for Women’s Studies
Department of Economics,
University of Mumbai
Empowerment of Women
*Women Empowerment Policy can be effective
only when its principles and programmes get
translated into a plan of action.
*For implementation of the plan, there has to be
an efficient resource management by elected
representatives and motivated civil servants,
sincere financial commitments for women’s
schemes & programmes and consistent
monitoring by women’s bodies within the state
apparatus and civil society.
Gender Impact of Budget
Budgetary Allocations for Women’s
Programmes
Empowerment
Budgetary Cuts
reduced
opportunities for women
SAP & Globalisation
women’s
unpaid work burden, thereby women
provided subsidy in the economy.
Devaluation, price-rise, erosion of
PDS
Women’s Component in Five Year Plans
I FYP (1951-56) Formation of CSWB 1953
II FYP-Development of Mahila Mandals
III & IV FYPs & interim plans(1961-74)Women’s Education and Mother & Child Health
V FYP (1974-78)-Welfare
Development
VI FYP(1980-85)-WD as separate economic
agenda-Health, Education, Employment
VII FYP(1986-1991)-WID-integration into
mainstream
VIII FYP(1992-97)- Development
Empowerment
outlay, Rs. 4 cr. In I FYP to Rs. 2000 cr. In
VIII FYP
IX FYP (1997-2002)- W Empowerment Policy,
2001, 30% of funds/benefits from development
sector to Women
X FYP and Gender Budgeting(GB)
Appreciates efforts at ensuring gender-just
and gender-sensitive budget
Will continue the process of dissecting the
govt. budget to establish its genderdifferential impact
Translate gender commitment to budgetary
commitments-Outlay of Rs. 13780 crores
WCP & GB to play complimentary role for
effective convergence, proper utilisation and
monitoring of fund from various
developmental sectors .
Critique of “IS” Budget and
Advocacy for “OUGHT to” Budget
To engender budgets at the Panchayat, state
and national levels, we need to analyse
budgets scheme-wise, sector wise, category
wise and year wise with their budget
estimates, revised estimates and actual
expenditure.
So far GB has been post facto effort to
dissect/analyse & thus offset any undesirable
consequences of the previous budget.
Highlights of the Union Budget-20023 w.r. to women and children
Increase in the plan allocation for DWCD by
33 %.
Total Amount- Rs. 2200 crores
100 scholarships in Dept. of S & T for women
scientists and technologists
National Nutrition Mission- Food Grains at
subsidized rate to girls & expectant & Nursing
Mothers (BPL)-Rs. 1 crore
Compare it with Defense
Expenditure-Rs. 65000 crores
Demand 52 Dept. of W & CD, 2002-3
Swadhar-shelter, food, clothing Care to
women & girls living in difficult
circumstances/ no support- 13.50 Rs. crore
Swayamsiddha Scheme to build training
capacity-Rs. 0.01 crore
Gender aware micro planning- Rs.0.01 crore
NN Mission for LBW babies, IMR, anaemia,
iodine deficiency in adults- Rs. 1 crore
SHGs for micro enterprises- Rs.18.15 crore
Demand No. 86, Water Budget, 2002-3
Monitoring of water quality------Rs.0.50 cr
Safety of old dams-----------------Rs.0.10 cr
Rain water Harvesting-------------Rs.0.10 cr
Poor urban, rural,tribal women’s major survival
struggle revolves around safe drinking water.
Leaving supply of water to private players has
enhanced hardship of common women.
Demands for Grants , Dept. of
2001-2 2002-3
Women & Child Development
(Rs. cr) (Rs. cr)
Nutrition
9.45
7.92
Condensed Course for Women’s Edu 2.00
1.80
Balika Samridhi Yojana
0.03
---Hostel for Working Women
7.00
13.48
Support to training & Emp
18.00 23.00
Program
Mahila Samridhi Yojana
7.35
---Socio Economic Programme
1.00
---Central Social Welfare Board
27.00
26.90
Training cum production Centre 12.84 16.34
Reproductive & Child Health
441.40 571.5
Gender Audit of Union Budget 2003-4
Increased allocation-Rs.2600 crores
1.76 % of total budgetary allocation for
women specific schemes and programmes
BPL population- 25 to 30 crore, the budget
promises to cover only 50 lakh families on
Antyodaya Scheme, in the context of 52 m
tons of food grains rotting in FCI go down.
1 % cut of interest on small savings has
affected SHGs adversely.
Privatisation of education, health, insurance
Demand for Grants of DW&CD, GoI, 2003-4
Revenue Section
Plan
Non-plan
Total
Secretariat - Social Service
0.50
7.00
7.50
Social Security & Welfare
202.63
40.95
243.58
Nutrition
1.81
5.96
7.77
North Eastern Areas
260.00
260.00
Grants-in-aid to state
Governments
2120.74
2120.74
Grants-in-aid to Union 14.32
Territories
Grand Total
2600.00
14.32
53.91
2653.91
Budgetary Allocation for 2003-4
Items
Working Women’s Hostel
Allocatio Cuts
n 2003-4, compared to
2002-3 Rs.
Rs.
9.00 cr
4.48 cr
Labour social securities
61.24 cr
30.00 cr
Rashtriya Mahila Kosh
1.00 cr
Handloom Sector
RCH (Rs.571.53 cr in
2002-03
Family Welfare Services
0.00
Ignored
448.57 cr 122.96 cr
142.00 cr 254.50 cr
Demands of Women’s Groups
Separate listing of women specific items in
the budget
No diversion of women’s component funds
(30% of the total) in different ministries and
departments
Transparency about allocation and utilisation
of funding
Right to information
Inclusion of gender economists in pre-budget
workshops that should be held around
October so that their suggestions can be
included.
4 categories of programmes/
schemes benefiting women
Women specific schemes where 100 % of
the allocation is required to be spent on
women.
2. Pro-women schemes where at least 30% of
allocation and benefits flow to women.
3. Gender neutral schemes meant for the
benefit of community as a whole where
both men and women avail these benefits.
4. The residual state specific programmes
having profound effect on women’s
position/ condition.
1.
Utilisation of Funds-MPLAD Scheme
Members of Parliament Local Area Development
Each M.P. gets Rs. 2 crore under MPLADS
In the areas dominated by the lower middle
class and the poverty groups- demands for
more schools, libraries, bridges, toilets, drains,
tube
wells,
community
centres
and
crematorium.
In the prosperous areas, the demands are for
road repairs and schools.
Private sector of the economy demands
banks, hospitals and shopping plaza.
M.P.s and M.L.A.s have to strike balance
immediate
needs
and
long-term
considerations for the constituency.
Unutilised Funds
As much as Rs. 312.51 lakh out of a total of
Rs. 730 lakh allocated by the ministry of tribal
Affairs to the Tribal Cooperative Marketing
Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) which
markets minor forest produce to set up 1876
grain banks, remained unutilised in 19992000 as per 20th Report of the parliamentary
Committee on welfare of the SCs and STs.
Estimated 320 million people in India are
facing starvation, close to 65 million tonnes of
food grains are rotting in government godowns.”
MPLADS in Maharashtra
In Maharashtra, only 66.5 % of fund under
MPLADS is utilised. While local bodies suffer
from a chronic shortage of funds, as little as
one-third of the funds released by the union
government under MPLADS remained
unutilised in the state. The report of the
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has
pointed out that the union government
released over Rs. 214 crore under MPLADS
for the period 1997-2000, but its utilization
was only around Rs. 73 crore.
Rescue Operation by Gender
sensitive Bureaucrats
In some cases M.P. s did not make even a
single recommendation leading to a blockade
of huge funds. For e.g. District collectors of
Beed, Pune and Satara invested Rs. 5.76
crore allotted to (Members of Parliament)
M.P.s of their areas in small savings schemes
to achieve their targets for 1999-2000.
( Panchayat Update, New Delhi, Vo. IX, No.
1, January, 2002).
Initiative of the Union RD Ministry
To check corruption and bring in transparency in the
implementation of rural development projects
sponsored by the union government, the Union
Rural Development ministry had asked all District
Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) to keep their
funds only in the nationalised banks.
It has also been made compulsory for the district
rural bodies to record complete details of
expenditure incurred under different heads.
People’s participation in monitoring the progress of
implementation and the mechanism of social audit
will also be introduced as part of the new strategy to
cleanse the working of the DRDAs.
Sampoorna Grameen Yojana Funds
The Supreme Court warns against diversion
of Sampoorna Grameen Rojgar funds meant
for upliftment for poor to other purposes.
The SC has directed the union government
not to release any fund under this head to a
state until a utilisation certificate for
previous allocation furnished by it.
This directive came in response to a
petition, filed by PUCL, highlighting
starvation deaths in some parts of Orissa.
NIRD Study on PRI Finances
A recent survey of panchayats working in 19
states, conducted by the National Institute of
Rural Development, Hyderabad suggested
that panchayats remain toothless because
functional and financial autonomy has not
been granted to the PRIs. The study by the
Institute of Social Sciences shows that the
extent of fiscal decentralisation through the
empowerment of PRIs has been very little.
Practical & Strategic Gender
Needs
Elected women in PRI, legislative bodies and
parliament have played a positive role in
addressing, or attempting to address, a range of
practical gender needs (inadequacies in living
conditions such as provision of fuel, water,
healthcare and employment).
their impact on strategic gender
needs(affirmative action by the state, pro-active
role of the employers to enhance women’s
position in the economy and social movements)
is not remarkable.
Need for Composite Programmes
women/ girls
for
There is a need for provisions in the
composite programmes under education,
health and rural development sectors to
target them specifically at girls/women as the
principal beneficiaries and disaggregated
within the total allocation.
Need to place restrictions on their reappropriation for other purposes.
Need for a Proactive Role of State
Commissions for Women on Budget
Budgets garner resources through the
taxation policies and allocate resources to
different sections of the economy.
The Budget is an important tool in the
hands of state for affirmative action for
improvement of gender relations through
reduction of gender gap in the development
process. It can help to reduce economic
inequalities, between men and women as
well as between the rich and the poor.
Bottom-up budget, Green Budget, Gender
Budget
Macro Policies & Task Force for NCW
local and global implications of pro-poor and
pro-women budgeting, alternative macro
scenarios emerging out of alternative budgets
and inter-linkages between gender-sensitive
budgeting and women’s empowerment.
Serious examining of budgets calls for greater
transparency at the level of international
economics to local processes of empowerment.
There is a need to provide training and
capacity building workshops for decisionmakers in the government structures, gram
sabhas, parliamentarians and audio-visual
media.
Thank you