Q19.Women empowerment in India needs gender budgeting. What are the requirements and status of gender budgeting in the Indian context?

Gender budgeting (GB) is a critical tool for gender-sensitive policy formulation, resource allocation, and expenditure tracking, essential for promoting women's empowerment in India.

• Strong political will and robust institutional mechanisms.
• Capacity building and availability of gender-disaggregated data.
• Active participation of civil society organizations.

India adopted GB in 2005-06, presenting a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) in the Union Budget. It categorizes schemes into 100% women-specific (Part A) and those with significant allocation for women (Part B). This increased visibility of gender-specific allocations and encouraged state-level initiatives, mainstreaming gender concerns.

• Limited capacity and inadequate gender-disaggregated data.
• Weak monitoring, tokenism, and lack of outcome-based assessment.

Strengthening GB needs improved capacity, robust data systems, enhanced accountability, linking allocations to gender outcomes, and greater public awareness for true empowerment.