New Delhi: The gender budget this year constituted 6.5 per cent of the Union Budget, a steady annual increase since 2014. Over FY24, there has been an increase of 38.4 per cent in allocation, data from the Economic Survey showed.
The government had set aside ₹97,134 crore (BE) on the schemes for the welfare and empowerment of women in FY14, and now, in FY25, the Gender Budget Statement has an allocation of ₹3.10 lakh crore.
“This shows a 38.7 per cent rise in the Gender Budget Statement (GBS) vis-à-vis FY24 BE and a 218.8 per cent increase over FY14 BE. The share of the Gender Budget in the total Union Budget has increased to 6.5 per cent in FY25, the highest since the introduction of GBS in FY06,” the Survey states.
From 2014-15, sex ratio at birth (SRB) at the national level rose to 930 in 2023-24 (provisional), while the maternal mortality rate fell from 130 per lakh live births in 2014-15 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20. Institutional deliveries over the last decade increased from 78.9 per cent in 2015-16 to 88.6 per cent in 2019-21, the data showed. The government attributed these developments to schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Pradhan Mantri matru Vandana Yojana.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, the participation of women among those trained has increased from 42.7 per cent in FY16 to 52.3 per cent in FY24. In ITIs and National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs), the participation of women went up from 9.8 per cent in FY16 to 13.3 per cent in FY24.
Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) rose to 37 per cent in 2022-23 from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18, the survey said. Rural India contributed largely to this, with nearly three-fourths of the women workers engaged in agriculture-related work. “... the rise in LFPR needs to be tapped into higher value-addition sectors suitable to the needs and qualifications of the rural female workforce, and agro-processing emerges as a good contender,” the Survey says.
Additionally, the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- NRLM – the Government’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) programme – covers more than 89 million women and 8.3 million SHGs. “Around 68 per cent of the loans have been sanctioned to women entrepreneurs under PM Mudra Yojana, and 77.7 per cent of the beneficiaries under Stand-Up India are women, as of May 2024,” the Survey added.
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Published 22 July 2024, 17:09 IST