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Union Budget 2020-21 and the Gender Budget Statement: A Critical Analysis from a Gender Perspective

2020; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.3687304

1556-5068

Aasha Kapur Mehta,

Microfinance and Financial Inclusion

In her Budget Speech on 1 February 2020, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, emphasised a “three-pillar framework” that promised fulfillment of the aspirations of different sections of the society, economic development and a caring society. It is undeniable that all three issues are extremely important. However, the need for caring and compassion has never been greater in India, than at the present time when the country has been ravaged by health, employment and livelihood related shocks due to Covid-19. This paper uses a gender lens to review the three pillar framework in the Union Budget 2020-21.A few months before preparing the Annual Union Budget, the Ministry of Finance issues a Budget Circular. The Budget Circular 2020-21 was issued on 2 October 2019 and required all ministries and departments to report allocations for women and girls in their existing schemes in the Gender Budget Statement (GBS) for Budget 2020-21. This paper analyses the extent to which ministries and departments complied with this stipulation in the GBS. It also highlights the inaccuracies in reporting that only 5 percent of India’s Total Budgetary Expenditure is spent on women and girls. This inaccurate reporting has persisted since the introduction of the GBS both due to flaws in its conceptualisation as well as in the process followed for reporting in it. The paper analyses the schemes and allocations reported in the GBS by the Department of Rural Development, to illustrate how reporting can be improved even within the existing format of the GBS, despite its flaws. It draws attention to the Gender Budget prepared by the Government of Odisha to identify ways in which the Union Budget and Budgets of several State Governments can be made more caring and compassionate. India was at the forefront of Gender Budgeting more than a decade ago. However, over the years it has lost the gains made during the initial years of implementing Gender Budgeting. It can regain that lost ground as well as achieve the promises made in the three pillars presented in Union Budget 2020-21 by using the six question framework and tools of Gender Budgeting discussed in the paper. Not only will this help them to provide appropriate budgetary estimates in the GBS but it will also lead to gender and poverty transformative planning, budgeting, implementation and outcomes. Perhaps next year’s Budget 2021-22 may then qualify as a Budget that represents a caring society.