By Vibhuti Patel

Budgetary allocations for women-specific schemes have increased only in the area of family planning

Budgets impact women's lives in several ways. They directly promote women's development through the allocation of budgetary funds for women's programmes and reduce opportunities for the empowerment of women through budgetary cuts. Structural adjustment programmes and globalisation policies have increased women's unpaid work burden, thereby increasing women-provided subsidies in the economy. Devaluation of incomes, as a result of new economic policies, price rises, incompetence of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the reduction of services offered by the public healthcare system means that women bear a disproportionate share of the burden. In patriarchal families it is the woman who has to shoulder the responsibility of providing meals and looking after sick family members. Hence women have a high stake in preventing increases in the proportion of indirect taxes on essential commodities and in budgetary provisions to guarantee food security and healthcare.

Women's component plan and gender budgeting:

The Planning Commission of India has always focused on women's issues as per the perceptions of their members on the status of women in the economy. The First Five-Year Plan (1951-1956) set up the Central Social Welfare Board in 1953 to promote welfare work through voluntary organisations, charitable trusts and philanthropic agencies. The Second Five-Year Plan (1956-1960) supported the development of mahila mandals to undertake work at the grassroots. The third, fourth and interim plans (1961-74) made provision for women's education, pre-natal and child health services, supplementary feeding for children, nursing and expectant mothers. The Fifth Five-Year Plan (1974-1978) marked a major shift in the approach towards women, from welfare to development. The Sixth Five-Year Plan (1980-85) accepted women's development as a separate economic agenda. It took a multi-disciplinary approach with a three-pronged thrust on health, education and employment. The Seventh Five-Year Plan (1985-1990) declared as its objective bringing women into the mainstream of national development. The Eighth Five-Year Plan (1992-1997) projected a paradigm shift from development to empowerment and promised to ensure a flow of benefits to women in the core sectors of education, health and employment. The outlay for women rose from Rs 4 crore in the first plan to Rs 2,000 crore in the eighth plan. The Ninth Five-Year Plan (1997-2002) stated that empowerment of women was its strategic objective. It accepted the concept of a women's component plan to assure that at least 30% of funds/benefits from all development sectors flow to women. The Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-2009) suggests specific strategies, policies and programmes for the empowerment of women. They are:

"Measurement of development has to go beyond the achievement of GDP growth to indicators of distributive justice and their monitoring. Women-headed households have to be specifically targeted, identifying added disadvantages in the rural and urban locations with reference to different parameters of deprivation. Formulation of gender development indicators to measure human development and their use as a tool for monitoring development needs to be hastened.

"The component plan approach, which did not address compartmentalisation of government functioning, should be replaced by a mandated approach of convergence of services at all levels of governance, through inter-sectoral committees of all ministries/departments at the Centre and the states with specific responsibility given to the panchayats and municipalities to administer at the grassroots level."

The United Nations has suggested that, "To protect the gains of the past and ensure steady progress on indicators of social development and gender equality, and in order to give a fresh impetus to the process of women's empowerment, the Tenth Plan needs to take some bold policy initiatives.

• Earmarking of funds for women under all major poverty alleviation programmes and the maintenance of gender disaggregated records of implementation of all poverty alleviation programmes.
• Mandatory registration of all assets provided under government programmes (land, house, animals, production units) in the joint names of husband and wife.
• Intensified focus on rights education and capacity-building interventions for women in all strategic sectors, including health and reproductive health, agriculture, natural resource management, technology (including information technology) and legal awareness.
• Revision of regulatory framework to allow women's collectives to access institutional credit, obtain medium-term leases for cultivation on wastelands and common lands, bid for contracts for the collection and sale of minor forest produce and other collective activities that will ensure household food security while regenerating the natural resource base."

Women's groups have demanded allocations for women-specific programmes to achieve the desired goals in a shorter time span. They should target women of different age-groups in terms of strategic interventions to take specific notice of adolescent girls, older women and women in difficult circumstances. Strategic gender tools like gender audits, gender impact assessments, gender analysis and gender budgeting to monitor implementation and impacts must be developed. Gender audit of plans, policies and programmes of various ministries with pro-women allocations has to be part of the monitoring process.

There is a need for provisions in the composite programmes in the education, health and rural development sectors to target them specifically at girls/women as the principal beneficiaries and disaggregated within the total allocation. It may also be necessary to place restrictions on their re-appropriation for other purposes.

To effectively attain population stabilisation, policies and plans need to empower women, promote their reproductive rights and involve men in reproductive decision-making and household responsibilities. Particular attention should be given to improve women's access to quality reproductive health services, including adolescent girls, to counselling on reproductive health and sexuality issues.

The strategy of organising women into self-help groups in the Ninth Plan period has paid good dividends for expanding micro-credit. This should be extended not only to reach larger numbers of women but also increase awareness of and access to social development, apart from encouraging a process of convergence in the delivery of services in a decentralised setup.

It is important to empower women's organisations and citizens groups to monitor the enforcement of equal and minimum wages legislation by state governments, and the adherence to norms in poverty alleviation programmes.

Professional organisations including universities should be included to help undertake evaluation and research studies to identify issues requiring special attention.

Highlights of the central government's Budget 2002-2003

• Increase in the plan allocation for the department of women and child development by 33%. Total amount -- Rs 2,200 crore.
• 100 scholarships a year in the department of science and technology to women scientists and technologists.
• National Nutrition Mission -- foodgrain at a subsidised rate to adolescent girls and expectant and nursing mothers belonging to below the poverty line families through ICDS structure. Demand number 52, department of women and child development
• Scheme Swadhar -- shelter, food, clothing and care to marginalised women/girls living in difficult circumstances who have no socio-economic support -- Rs 13.50 crore.
• Swayamsiddha Scheme to build training capacity -- Rs 0.01 crore.
• Gender-aware micro-planning project for awareness generation, convergence of delivery, holistic empowerment of women, economic empowerment -- Rs 0.01 crore.
• Gender sensitisation-dissemination of data/information on women's development, evaluation of existing programmes on women and development -- Rs 0.01 crore.
• National Nutrition Mission for low birth weight (LBW) babies and for a reduction in infant mortality rates, anaemia, iodine deficiency in adults etc -- Rs 1 crore.
• Self-help groups to converge services, promote micro enterprises -- Rs 18.15 crore.

The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy has undertaken a gender audit of Budget 2002-03, in its publication, `Gender Budgeting in India'. According to this report, the budgetary allocation for women-specific schemes increased only in the area of family planning. Family planning schemes received an additional Rs 700 crore in the present budget.

For economic services concerning women, the present budget has made provision for only Rs 153.70 crore. For Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, the nodal agency for micro-credit schemes, the budgetary allocation was reduced from the earlier Rs 3 crore to Rs 1 crore. Budgetary allocation for providing drinking water and electricity connections to marginalised sections remain inadequate. Women's groups have criticised budgetary cuts on schemes to provide foodgrain to adolescent girls as well as pregnant women and nursing mothers. Per capita allocation funds for nutritional support for girl children, through mid-day meal schemes, declined from Rs 112 to Rs 70. Per capita allocation of budgetary provision for girls' education is only Rs 286.

There has to be coordination between the launching of new schemes and budgetary allocations. It does not serve women's interests if the funds are not available for already-launched schemes, or funds allocated for non-existing schemes as these funds will remain unutilised. In the absence of women-specific educational schemes, Rs 160 crore allocated for the national programme for women's education remained unutilised.

Women's groups have condemned the budgetary allocation for weapons of destruction and military expenditure as wasteful expenditure. Nearly half of the population of south Asia suffers as a result of pauperisation. In this context, militarisation goes against the interests of women. They have emphasised the need for peace initiatives cutting across national boundaries in south Asia.
Budget analyses from the gender perspective should be introduced and promoted in all women's groups, educational and research institutions. Public debate on gender sensitive budgets will help the country tilt the balance in favour of area development and the peaceful use of resources in the present atmosphere of jingoism.

Gender audit of Budget 2003-4

The latest budget has increased the budgetary allocation for the year 2003-4 to Rs 2,600 crore. This is Rs 400 crore more than the previous year. Still, the following points can have negative implications for the poor women of our country.

• The implications of a hike in the price of light diesel oil and fertilisers on the family budget of rural poor women will be negative.
• The BPL population is 25-30 crores, while Budget 2003-4 promises to cover only 50 lakh families in the Antyodaya Scheme even when 52 million tonnes of foodgrain lies rotting in FCI godowns.
• The 1% cut in interest on small savings will reduce the incomes of women's self-help groups involved in micro-credit.
• The privatisation and user charges for services such as health, education and insurance schemes will deprive women of educational opportunities and healthcare faciliti

This budget has wiped out what the earlier two budgets promised Indian women.

• * This budget promotes the World Bank's prescription for the privatisation of health services.
• A reduction in the cost of foreign alcohol will not go in favour of women.

Women's groups have demanded a separate listing of women-specific items, a women's component and transparency in the utilisation of allocated amounts for women's programmes.

Allocation and expenses of resources for women in panchayat budgets:

To engender budgets at the panchayat level, we need to analyse budgets scheme-wise, sector-wise, category-wise and year-wise with their budget estimates, revised estimates and actual expenditure. It is also important to make a thorough study of the economic survey published by the Government of India and the state human development reports, state policies for women and the allocation of resources in the state plans published by state governments that guide programmes and budgetary allocations. This exercise helps us understand the workings of macro policies in determining women's predicaments. Now, women's groups are demanding that each and every ministry allocate separate funds for women-specific needs.

Each state has a detailed list of programmes/schemes benefiting women under four categories:

1. Women-specific schemes where 100% of the allocation is required to be spent on women.
2. Pro-women schemes where at least 30% of the allocation and benefits flow to women.
3. Gender-neutral schemes meant to benefit the community as a whole where both men and women avail of the benefits.
4. Residual state-specific programmes that have a profound effect on women's position/condition.

The All India Institute of Local Self Government, Mumbai, provides details of all schemes under these four categories through its publications and through workshops and training programmes. Moreover, it also teaches elected representatives efficient ways of programme implementation through budgeting from below.

Problem of utilisation of funds allocated for area development

Rs 2 crore is allocated to each MP for the development of the constituency as per the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS). The above table is quite revealing. Utilisation of government funding is maximum in the north-eastern states because of strong horizontal and vertical networking. The prosperous states depend more on private funding to avoid bureaucratic hassles. If poorer areas in the state don't have a highly motivated administration or an NGO network, then too funding remains unutilised. In areas dominated by the lower middle class and poorer groups, there are demands for more schools, libraries, bridges, toilets, drains, tubewells, community centres and crematoriums. In prosperous areas, the demands are for road repair and schools. The private sector of the economy demands banks, hospitals and shopping plazas. Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have to strike a balance by keeping in mind the immediate needs and long-term considerations of their constituencies.

As much as Rs 312.51 lakh, out of a total of Rs 730 lakh allocated by the ministry of tribal affairs to the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (TRIFED), which markets minor forest produce, to set up 1,876 grain banks remained unutilised in 1999-2000, as per the 20th report of the parliamentary committee on the welfare of SCs and STs. It is ironic that even as an estimated 320 million people in India face starvation, close to 65 million tonnes of foodgrain lie rotting in government godowns.

In Maharashtra, only 66.5% of funds under MPLADS is utilised. While local bodies suffer a chronic shortage of funds, as little as one-third of the funds released by the Union government under MPLADS remained unutilised in the state. A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) points out that the Union government released over Rs 214 crore under MPLADS for the period 1997-2000, but its utilisation was only around Rs 73 crore. In some cases MPs did not make even a single recommendation. For example, district collectors of Beed, Pune and Satara invested Rs 5.76 crore allotted to the MPs of their areas in small savings schemes to achieve their targets for 1999-2000.

The strategy of organising women into self-help groups in the Ninth Plan period has paid good dividends. This should be extended not only to reach larger numbers of women but also to increase awareness of and access to social development, apart from encouraging a process of convergence in the delivery of services in a decentralised setup. Technical workshops on allocation and expenditure of panchayat budgets should be organised in November for pre-budget inputs for advocacy and lobbying, and in March for a critical evaluation of budgetary allocations.

Financial matters and PRIs

A recent survey of panchayats working in 19 states, conducted by the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, suggested that panchayats remain toothless because functional and financial autonomy has not been granted to PRIs. The study by the Institute of Social Sciences shows that the extent of fiscal decentralisation through the empowerment of PRIs has been very limited. The report of the working group on decentralisation appointed by the Karnataka government has been criticised severely because, "it betrays utter lack of trust in the people, which is the keystone of decentralised democracy," (Bandyopadhyay, 2002). Case studies of panchayat finances in the gram sabhas of Midnapur district in West Bengal have corroborated these facts in terms of lack of fiscal autonomy, neglect of girls' education and a resource crunch (Sau, 2002),(Majumdar, Das, Bandyopadhyay, 2002; Sau, 2001). But it has played a substantial role in the development of infrastructure, for example rural roads, drinking water, health, education, irrigation and power (Sau, 2002).

Elected representatives, district officials and NGOs working in the area should act as facilitators in preparation of plans for area development and social justice (Pal, 2002). The UN system has supported the allocation of resources for women in PRIs, right from the beginning. "The evidence on gender and decentralisation in India thus suggests that while women have played a positive role in addressing, or attempting to address, a range of practical gender needs1, their impact on strategic gender needs2 is not remarkable," (UNDP, 2002).

Conclusion

Budgets garner resources through taxation policies and allocate resources to different sections of the economy. Budgets are an important tool in the hands of the State for affirmative action to improve gender relations through the reduction of gender gaps in the development process. They can help reduce economic inequalities between men and women as well as between the rich and the poor. Hence, budgetary policies need to consider the gender dynamics operating within the economy and in civil society. There is a need to highlight participatory approaches to pro-poor budgeting, green budgeting, local and global implications of pro-poor and pro-women budgeting, alternative macro scenarios emerging out of alternative budgets and inter-linkages between gender-sensitive budgeting and women's empowerment. Serious examination of budgets calls for greater transparency at the international economics level to local processes of empowerment. There is the need to provide training and capacity-building workshops for decision-makers in government structures, gram sabhas, parliamentarians and the audio-visual media.

(Vibhuti Patel is Reader, Centre for Women's Studies, Department of Economics, University of Mumbai)

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