Empowering Women Through Fiscal Policy: An Evaluation Of India’s Gender Budgeting Experience

The realization of human development necessitates the progress and empowerment of women and girls, who constitute 48.9% of India’s overall population according to the 2011 census. Women are not only a significant proportion of the nation’s valued human capital, but they are also individuals whose socioeconomic development is crucial for sustaining the progress of the country. Disparities are evident in India concerning the control and access to resources by women. These disparities are evident in various domains, including but not limited to occupational status, skill levels, health, and literacy. In recent decades, women’s empowerment has garnered global focus, including in India, and several initiatives have been taken both at national and international levels for promoting women’s empowerment. Gender Budgeting is a recent addition to these initiatives and is recognized as a crucial tool for attaining gender equality and women’s empowerment. The present study seeks to analyze the effects of gender budgeting on women’s empowerment in India by examining some key socioeconomic indicators such as education, health, and employment status. The findings reveal a mixed picture of the effectiveness of gender budgeting in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in India. Despite a number of positive developments, the gender budgeting effort has certain flaws that minimize its impact on holistic empowerment of women.

⓿ Since its inception in 2005-06, the proportion of the Gender Budget within the Union Budget of India exhibited a steady increase, reaching a peak of 6.22 percent in 2011-12, before entering a phase of decline up to 2022-23, albeit with intermittent fluctuations.

⓿ The assessment of the impacts of gender budgeting on women’s empowerment in India presents a varied outcome. While there have been some encouraging developments, there are certain shortcomings in the gender budgeting initiative which limit its effect on holistic empowerment of women.