India's Gender Budget Up By Over 30% This Year

India's Gender Budget, which aims to reduce the gender gap, was allocated ₹2.23 lakh crore in the 2023 Union Budget -- just 2.12 per cent higher than the Revised Estimates (RE) of ₹2.18 lakh crore for 2022-23. However, it was at least 30 per cent higher compared to last year's Budget Estimates (BE) of 1.71 lakh crore.

There was a 0.63 per cent rise in the share of Gender Budget in government's total expenditure. The estimated Gender Budget stood at 4.96 per cent of the total expenditure this year, compared to 4.33 per cent last year.

The Gender Budget was first introduced in the 2005-06 Budget. It aims to "break down the government's mainstream budget according to its impact on women and men for gender neutral and gender sensitive sectors," according to the Women and Child Development Ministry. Ultimately, the Gender Budget intends to achieve gender equality.

Decoding Part A and B of Gender Budget

The Gender Budget is divided into Part A and Part B. Part A highlights the Women Specific Schemes with 100 per cent allocation for women, while Part B includes schemes where at least 30 per cent of the allocation is for women.

Part A of the Gender Budget, which was allotted over ₹88,000 crore this year, is dominated by the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (both Urban and Rural housing). These two schemes attracted 90 per cent of the total funding for Part A of the Gender Budget.

Part B - the bigger of the two components - received ₹1.35 lakh crore in the 2023 Budget. Part B comprise several schemes pertaining to rural development, health, education and women empowerment.

There was a whopping 228 per cent hike in Part A of the Gender Budget compared to last year, while Part B saw a six per cent drop from 2022-23.

In fact, the Revised Estimates for Part A in 2022-23 was even higher - a 238.26 per cent rise - than the Budget Estimates for the same period. On the other hand, the Revised Estimates for Part B was 11.30 per cent lower than the Budget Estimates for 2022-23.

What some key schemes received

Safe City Project, an initiative under the Nirbhaya Fund scheme for ensuring safety of women and children, saw a eight-fold increase in allocation - from ₹165 crore in RE 2022-23 to ₹1,300 crore in BE 2023-24.

SAMBAL, a sub-scheme comprising of old schemes like One Stop Centre, Women Helpline and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, saw no change in allocation in the 2023 Budget -- ₹562 crore.

Another sub-scheme SAMARTHYA, which includes women empowerment programmes like Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and Swadhar Greh, was earmaked ₹2,496 crore this year. This was 33 per cent more compared to RE 2022-23 but two per cent less than BE 2022-23.

SAMBAL and SAMARTHYA are part of the larger umbrella scheme 'Mission Shakti', an integrated women empowerment programme that came into effect in April 2022.