Gender budgeting means incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures to promote gender equality through gender-specific allocations. The purpose of gender budgeting is threefold:

• To promote accountability and transparency in fiscal planning.
• To increase gender-responsive participation in the budget process, for example, by undertaking steps to involve women and men equally in the budget preparation.
• To advance gender equality and women’s rights.

To integrate gender-responsive budgeting in India’s budgeting process, the Government of India introduced the Gender Budget Statement (GBS) in the Union Budget in 2005-06. However, various challenges remain in implementing gender budgeting in India, including: Insufficient resources: The overall quantum of the gender budget is still less than 1% of the GDP. For instance, the gender budget was, on average, about 0.7% of the GDP, over the 2008-09 to 2019-20 period. The concentration of funds in a few sectors: Over the last decades, four ministries Rural – Development, Education, Health, and MWCD have received between 85-90% of the Gender Budget expenditure. This pattern of allocation suggests a concentration of funds in a few sectors, as opposed to a widespread gender-balanced budget. Methodological inaccuracies: There are methodological inaccuracies noted in the Gender Budget Statement (GBS). Although sex-disaggregated data is available, there is a need to generate more information, particularly regarding access to resources and opportunities, without which it is not possible to integrate a gender perspective in the budget process. Accountability mechanisms: Though it is mandatory to release the GBS, there are no effective accountability mechanisms mandating the impact assessment of allocations for female beneficiaries. Also, there are limitations of Parliamentary interventions as the role of the legislature in the budget process is often confined to budgetary approval and oversight and not to formulation and execution. Lack of political will to institutionalize gender budgeting: Gender budgeting requires political will to support a process of transforming the traditional budget-making and policy processes by removing long-standing, in-built biases. The government has taken certain steps like the constitution of Gender Budgeting Cells (GBCs) creation of the Gender Data Bank etc., but more effort is required in this regard to achieve the objectives of gender budgeting.

These include:

• Create a ranking for state-level gender budgeting to incentivize the states to take further steps to improve the efficacy of these measures.
• Capacity building and technical support should be provided to the state-level Gender Budgeting Cells. Gender audits of centrally sponsored schemes and flagship programs should be undertaken to measure impacts.
• The deviation between budgetary allocation and actual spending needs to be addressed through proper monitoring of outcomes.

Despite the challenges, gender budgeting is an institutionalized tool that has allowed policymakers to assess how much the government spends on women’s empowerment, and is a reflection of India’s sincere efforts towards achieving its gender equality goals. In this context, India needs to revisit its approach from time to time and tailor budgeting practices to suit emergent needs and trends.