Economists tend to view budgets as gender-neutral instruments. However, budgets are not gender neutral; they are “gender blind”. Gender-blind budgets ignore the different effects budgets have on women and men.
Such budgets do not recognise the different roles, responsibilities and capabilities men and women play and ignore the economic and social differences that exist between women and men.
Union Budget-2017–’18, too, may have ignored some gender-based necessities. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced a hike in allocation for welfare of women and children, from Rs1.56 lakh crore last year to Rs1.84 lakh crore in the budget. This included a plan to set up Mahila Shakti Kendras — or women’s empowerment centres — at the village level in 14 lakh anganwadis under the Integrated Child Development Scheme.
Jaitley said Mahila Shakti Kendras will be “one-stop convergent support services for empowering rural women with opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition”.
The government has announced allocation of Rs500 crore for this scheme. While details about the scheme and its implementation are yet to emerge, those working in the field of rural women’s empowerment have raised some primary concerns.
For one, the scheme proposes to attach a Mahila Shakti Kendra to each of the country’s 14 lakh anganwadis. And if the Rs500 crore is divided among 14 lakh anganwadis in the country, it amounts to justRs3,571 per month for each Mahila Shakti Kendra.
If this is the amount for each anganwadi, it is inadequate for operations. Activists are also concerned about the government’s proposal to attach Mahila Shakti Kendras with anganwadis in the first place. They fear it will undermine the ICDS.
In the past two years, ICDS, which operates anganwadis, has suffered major budget cuts that workers have found debilitating.
In Budget 2015-’16, Jaitley had slashed ICDS budget allocation from Rs16,000 crore to Rs8,000 crore. In the next budget he reduced the allocation again by seven per cent.
The functioning of anganwadis has already been affected by the cuts.
The government should focus on strengthening the ICDS programme instead of using anganwadis to implement a new scheme. Activists say anganwadi workers are already overburdened with duties beyond their primary jobs. Often, they are paid less than the minimum wage.
Mahila Shakti Kendras have been envisaged as centres for women to get support for everything ranging from employment and skill development to health and digital literacy. How can an anganwadi worker do it all? If digital literacy is the focus of the government, it should expand programmes such as Mahila Samakhya instead of shutting them down.
The Mahila Samakhya programme was run from 1990 to 2016 by the Union ministry of human resources development to empower rural women through multi-pronged approaches that focused on literacy, health, legal aid and participation in local governance.
In the 26 years of its operation, the programme expanded from three states to 11 states covering 130 districts; it was often described as one of the most successful grass-roots movements in the country.
Its success notwithstanding, the central government last year sought to stop funding for the programme, and moved it from under HRD to National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). Today the programme is virtually shut down as NRLM is yet to take it up.
The government has also failed to utilise the Rs1,000-crore Nirbhaya Fund for women’s safety announced in 2013. For three years in a row, this budget allocation has remained unspent. The government has also failed to set up the one-stop rape crisis centres it had promised two years ago. Gender equality has far reaching implications as it alleviates poverty and promotes economic growth.
The writer is a Delhi-based economist.