Society Do Women
Really Figure in the Budget?
by Anuradha Bhasin
The
woman-related announcement that made any news in the Union budget for
2008-09 was the increase in the exemption limit in income taxes. The
exemption limit for women was raised to Rs 180,000 (US$1=Rs 39.3) a
year, and to Rs.150,000 for men.
Other than this, the budget also increased the total allocation for the
Ministry of Women and Child Development by 24 per cent over the last
year to Rs 7,200 crore (Rs 72,000 million). Within this, the largest
amounts of funding have been allotted to empowering and building
capacity of self-help groups (Rs 200 crore or Rs 2,000 million); helping
victims of rape and destitution (Rs 40 crore or Rs 400 million);
strengthening women's traditional skills (Rs 37 crore or Rs 370
million); promoting micro-credit among poor women (Rs 31 crore or Rs 310
million); and setting up hostels for working women (Rs 20 crore).
Additionally, a sum of Rs 23 crore (Rs 230 million) has been allotted
for initiatives to increase women's empowerment and livelihoods
programmes in conjunction with the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD), to be introduced in four districts in Uttar Pradesh
and two in Bihar.
There is also funding for programmes related to women run by other
departments and ministries. Reminding us that "policy makers often tend
to forget that one-half of the population is constituted by women and
they are entitled to an equal share - and an equal say - in all
programmes and schemes", the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, allocated
a total of Rs 11,460 crore (Rs 114,600 million) for schemes that are
fully women-centric; and Rs 16,202 crore (RS 162,020 million) for those
which are at least 30 per cent women-specific.
So, on the face of it, the budget has a lot in it for women. But even a
quick glance at some of the indicators relating to women in India show
how very inadequate this kind of gradualist approach is. Despite high
and sustained growth in the economy for several years, outcomes relating
to poor women continue to be abysmal, and have even declined in recent
years, showing that we have miles to go before we even catch up with
some of our economically deprived neighbors. More than half of the women
in India give birth without the help of a skilled birth attendant
compared to three per cent of the women in Sri Lanka or China (Approach
to the Eleventh Plan). Not surprisingly our maternal mortality rate
(deaths per 100,000 deliveries) is as high as 540, against 92 in Sri
Lanka and 41 in Malaysia (WHO). Anemia among women has increased over
the past seven years, even among pregnant women, so today that 55 per
cent of the women in the country are suffering from this grave
nutritional deficiency (NFHS-3). India also continues to rank
embarrassingly low in the Gender Development Index - it is at 113, out
of 157 countries, something that is unacceptable in a country aspiring
to be one of the global economic giants.
To this extent, the gradual inching up of budgetary provisions aimed at
women is not enough. Even within the Ministry of Woman and Child, the
bulk of the funds allotted actually go to child-related initiatives - of
this year's Rs 7,200 crore, women's programmes get a measly Rs 427 crore
(Rs 4,270 million). While the welfare of both sections of the population
is interrelated, this just goes to show how far we still are from the 30
per cent budgetary allotment for women promised in the Women's Component
Plan as far back as 1997.
Also, if we are to really help women, funds allotted for them should
target poor and deprived women. Publicly funded initiatives need to
focus on women from the lower social and economic strata, as they face
multiple discrimination on the basis of caste and class, whether they
live in the rural or urban areas. Literacy rates among 'adivasi'
(tribal) and 'dalit' (outcaste) women is far lower than the overall
female literacy rate, and there is significant deprivation among Muslim
women.
Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the gender budgeting exercise as
it is currently formulated - it reports on women as a homogenous group,
and does not sift out how much of the funds reach really needy women and
how much goes to those who are 'more equal than others'. But there is
evidence to show that less than 10 per cent of the total gender
budgeting pool goes to women who are most marginalized and discriminated
against, and even this share is declining.
What is needed is a very large budgetary thrust aimed at poor and
marginalized women. This push can best be given by specifying a minimum
share of resources from the relevant ministries to be dedicated for the
development of poor women, and then transferring any shortfall in the
use of this share to a non- lapsable pool of resources.
Such a process was introduced a few years ago for the Northeast, for
just such a reason - to tackle its enormous social and physical
infrastructure backlog and enable its residents to catch up with the
rest of the country. And it is beginning to show steady results. When we
talk of the poor and marginalized women, we refer to a far larger share
of the population suffering gross inequities, with no hope of catching
up without a quantum boost. Unfortunately, raising income tax exemption
limits and tinkering with budgetary allocations is just not enough.
(The writer is a consultant to the
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.)
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