The year 2020 has been unfair to everyone, especially to women. The pandemic job cut hit women harder than men, leaving 17 million unemployed in April 2020 alone, according to a report by Oxfam India. While women, especially those involved in domestic and unorganized sectors were the first to face the brunt of the economic slowdown, loss of livelihoods and weakened income capacities, children too were severely impacted by the deep digital- divide induced by the pandemic. Women expected the central government to announce steps to push women labour participation rate in the forthcoming budget. Apart from that, like every year, people had several expectations from the Finance Minister and the government’s budget announcement. Today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2021, where she declared some important updates & reformation pertaining to women empowerment. Let’s have a look on those updates.
Announcement Made During Budget 2021
A sum of Rs. 24,435 crore has been set aside for the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry for the next fiscal in the Budget announced on Monday, a 16.31 percent increase over the 2020-21 financial year. Out of the Rs. 24,435 crore, the highest amount has been allocated to the newly announced Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0 scheme with Rs. 20,105 crore.
Poshan 2.0 scheme in an umbrella scheme covering the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Anganwadi Services, Poshan Abhiyaan, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and the National Creche Scheme.
The further calculation suggests that the amount set aside for the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry is 16 percent higher over the 2020-21 financial year. In 2020-21, Rs. 30,007.09 crore was allocated which was revised to Rs. 21,008.31 crore. The total amount for the social services sector, which includes nutrition and social security and welfare, has been increased from Rs. 2,411.80 crore in 2020-21 to Rs. 3,575.96 crore in 2021-22.
The budget of the ministry’s autonomous bodies - National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD), Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), National Commission for Women and Central Social Welfare Board - have been increased in the current budget. The budget for Mission for Protection and Empowerment of Women has been drastically reduced from Rs. 726 crore to Rs. 48 crore. In social Services, Rs. 783.82 crore was allocated while in the previous fiscal, an amount of Rs. 695 crore was allocated.
In the budget speech that lasted over an hour and fifty minutes, FM Nirmala Sitharaman did not lay much emphasis on the allocations made for several schemes under the WCD but mentioned that women will be allowed to work in all sectors and in night shifts, with adequate safety. She announced stringent safety measures for women in night-shifts and Rs. 1,000 crore for tea workers, especially women and children.
Expectation
The first and the foremost advancement that India as a nation is going to witness is of increase pacification of women workforce. Analyzing the budget, several job market experts are expressing their views that the budget will help enhance women’s workforce participation as the allowance to work all shifts will encourage companies across several sectors to hire more women. However, according to experts, to be able to reap the benefits of this allowance, organizations have to put in place the necessary infrastructure to create a safe and secure workplace to attract and hire more women.
Conclusion
India has been conducting gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) as a part of its Union Budget since 2005-06, in tandem with several European countries and, the United Kingdom. Soon after the Budget presentation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “This budget has categorically made announcements to ease and make lives of women better”. However, the numbers suggest no clear outline for women welfare, job losses suffered in the past year or loss of education faced by children.
Though the expectation and conclusion for this topic are too early, we can just hope for the best as a result. While the markets have given a thumbs up to the budget, women and child development sector is one of the major footholds without which Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission would not bear fruits.
