Gender Budgeting 2025 in India

The Union Budget 2025-26 marks a pivotal moment for women’s empowerment in India. With Gender Budget allocations reaching 1% of GDP and over ₹3 lakh crore earmarked for pro-women programs, the government has reinforced its commitment to inclusive growth. Gender budgeting now plays a central role in ensuring that women-led development initiatives receive focused attention and adequate resources.

What is Gender Budgeting?

Gender budgeting is a strategic approach that integrates gender perspectives into the budgeting process. Its primary aim is to ensure that public resources are allocated in ways that:

• Promote gender equality.
• Address the specific needs of women and girls.
• Support gender-sensitive policies and programs.

Key highlights:

• Introduced: First launched in 2005-06.
• Annual Reporting: The government releases a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) alongside the Union Budget.
• Nodal Agency: The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) coordinates gender budgeting at the national level.
• Focus Areas: Economic participation, education, health, political empowerment, and women’s welfare programs.

Historical Background of Gender Budgeting in India

• 2001: The Finance Minister made the first special reference to gender in the budget. The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) analyzed the Union Budget 2001-02 from a gender perspective.
• 2005-06: The Expenditure Division of the Ministry of Finance issued the first note on gender budgeting in the budget circular.
• 2007: The Department of Expenditure established Gender Budgeting Cells (GBCs) across ministries and defined their functions.
• 2010: The Planning Commission recommended adopting Gender Responsive Budgeting instead of the Women Component Plan.
• 2021: 27 states/UTs had formally adopted gender budgeting, according to the MWCD.

Components of Gender Budgeting

The Gender Budget Statement (GBS) is organized into three main parts:

1. Part A: Schemes with 100% allocation for women.
2. Part B: Schemes with 30%-100% allocation for women.
3. Part C: Introduced recently, reporting pro-women schemes with less than 30% allocation, e.g., the PM Kisan scheme with an allocation of ₹15,000 crore.

Why Are Gender Budget Allocations Increasing in 2025?

• Historically, Gender Budget allocations averaged 5% of total expenditure.
• In Budget 2024-25, allocations for pro-women schemes rose to 6.8%, signaling stronger government focus.
• Key drivers of this increase:
  1. Introduction of Part C in the GBS, capturing additional pro-women schemes.
  2. Expanded Part A allocations, with schemes dedicated entirely to women now constituting almost 40% of GBS allocations, compared to 15-17% in 2022-23.

Challenges in Gender Budgeting

Despite progress, several challenges persist:

• Over-Reporting: Programs like PM Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) sometimes report inflated gender allocations without justification.
• Under-Reporting: Important women-centric schemes such as NRLM and MGNREGS do not fully reflect the proportion of women beneficiaries. For instance, MGNREGS shows only 33.6% allocation for women despite women making up 59.3% of the workforce.
• Neglected Sectors: Areas like transportation, water collection, and water security, which heavily impact women, are often overlooked in gender budgeting.
• Incomplete Representation: Schemes for women entrepreneurs, including PM Vishwakarma, PM SVANidhi, and Stand-Up India, are not fully reported.

How Gender Budgeting Empowers Women in India

Gender budgeting is more than a financial tool—it is a catalyst for women’s empowerment. Key benefits include:

• Ensuring equitable distribution of development benefits between men and women.
• Highlighting the need for affirmative action in women-centric programs.
• Raising awareness about gender disparities in various sectors.
• Contributing to gender equality, human development, and economic efficiency through gender-responsive budget policies.
• Encouraging ministries and departments to prioritize women’s empowerment, leading to more targeted funding.
• Mainstreaming gender concerns in public expenditure and policy planning, ensuring accountability in implementation.

Conclusion

As of August 2025, gender budgeting remains a cornerstone of India’s development strategy, ensuring that women-led growth is both recognized and funded. With increasing allocations, refined reporting, and a growing focus on underrepresented sectors, gender budgeting is shaping a future where economic and social policies actively promote gender equality.

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