Budget expands gender allocations

Unlike previous years, the Gender Budget statement for 2024–2025 comprises three parts. Part A includes 100 per cent allocations, Part B includes at least 30 per cent allocations for women (termed pro-women), and a new Part C includes less than 30 per cent allocations for women.

As usual, the Prime Minister Awas Yojana Urban and Rural make up the largest allocation in Part A, with a combined budget of Rs 80,670.75 crore. Part C contains only one allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan), with Rs 15,000 crore designated as a pro-women scheme. Nonetheless, the expansion of the Gender Budget to include schemes with an impact on women in Part C signals a positive approach to accounting.

Both the Interim Budget and the full Budget  show a significant shift from focusing solely on women’s development to emphasising women-led development. Women (nari) are recognised as a crucial pillar for the country’s economic growth.

The total allocation for the Gender Budget 2024-2025 has been increased to Rs 3,27,158.44 crore, representing a surge of 46.56 per cent compared to the Gender Budget 2023-2024, although the change is not significant compared to this year’s Interim Budget (Rs 3,09,690.1 crore). The Ministry of Women and Child Development has been allocated Rs 26,092.19 crore. Although the allocation has not changed from that announced in the Interim Budget, there is an increase of 2.52 per cent from the previous year’s allocation for MoWCD. 

According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017–2024 data, the increase in female labour force participation is predominantly driven by rural women employed in agriculture. In this context, the Economic Survey underscores the imperative to enhance job quality in rural regions and prioritise investment in the care economy to augment employment prospects in urban areas. 

In Budget 2024–2025, to promote women’s employment opportunities, the Finance Minister proposes building more working women’s hostels and crèches, providing skilling programmes, and promoting market accessibility for self-help groups. While investments in hostels and crèches are a welcome move for millions of women juggling the double burden of care roles and full-time jobs, this is not sufficient. Despite promises of more hostels, funding for Samarthya, the MoWCD scheme for working women hostels, has slightly declined. In this context, the proposal to establish working women’s hostels in partnership with the private sector is worth considering. The Lakhpati Didi scheme, which gained much attention by promising a target of three crore lakhpati didis in the Interim Budget, has disappeared from the Budget for 2024–2025.

The Mudra loan limit has been increased to Rs 20 lakh, benefiting women entrepreneurs. As of November 2023, 64 per cent of the 44.46 crore loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) and over 80 per cent of funds from the Stand Up India Scheme were sanctioned to women. Increasing allocations for these schemes and establishing street food hubs in 100 cities could further enhance women’s economic empowerment and create new livelihood opportunities.

Given India’s demographics and slow job creation, the PM’s Package for Employment and Skilling is a worthwhile initiative to boost employment. However, it lacks specific measures to boost women’s recruitment in the private sector. Additionally, the broader impact of such incentives on the job market remains to be seen, as these incentives currently cover only initial salary payments. 

The Budget includes a women-specific skilling package, but the allocation for the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is a mere Rs 83.19 crore. Additionally, funding for the Skill India Programme under the Gender Budget has significantly dropped from Rs 2,278 crore to Rs 764 crore.

Additionally, schemes ensuring the safety of women show a decrease in allocation. The Safe City Project, a centrally sponsored scheme that had an allocation of Rs 1,300 crore in 2023-2024, has only Rs 214 crore in the Budget. 

While the 2024–2025 budgetary allocation for women is increasing, effective and equitable participation of women requires major changes in laws, policies, and societal norms. The delayed implementation of the Code on Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions 2020, intended to enable women to work night shifts and in all manufacturing sectors, could hinder their formal employment in these areas. Without such policy changes, employment-linked incentive schemes and other budgetary allocations may not fully benefit women. The budget allocations must also be linked to a gender feedback mechanism to evaluate the effect of each scheme on women.

(Anu Maria Francis is a senior associate, Research and Projects and Eliza Jo Varghese is a research assistant, the Centre for Public Policy Research)