The Hindu : New Delhi News : Women groups seek gender friendly Budget

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Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008
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Women groups seek gender friendly Budget

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Highlighting their disappointment over Budget 2007-08 with regard to its impact on women, Capital’s women groups have suggested ways to ensure overall development of women in the country by introducing a gender-friendly Union Budget.

Addressing a conference organised by a non-government organisation, Women Power Connect, here on Monday, its president Ranjana Kumari said: “The Government should not treat ‘gender budget’ as another buzz word. Unless gender issues are seen as being integral to the planning of development schemes, the efforts towards achieving gender equality cannot be achieved.”

Discussing the steps taken by the Government so far, the conference focused on the finer aspects and impact of gender budgeting on the overall development of women.

More finance sought

As part of the conference, WPC distributed a “Gender Audit of Union Budget 2007-08” by its vice-president Prof. Vibhuti Patel. According to the organisation, the audit had revealed that although there was greater financial allocation for women’s concerns in last year’s Union Budget, there was need to overcome the limitations in the upcoming budgets in crucial areas affecting women.

“In the previous Budget, the amount allocated under ‘Social Security for Unorganised Sector’ was only Rs.5 crore which is highly disappointing in a situation where 94 per cent of the women workers in India are in the unorganised sector. For social security and empowerment of women in the informal economy, more financial allocation is needed,” said Ms. Patel.

Major disappointment

According to WPC, other major disappointments over Budget 2007-08 included non-inclusion of women in the budgetary allocation under “Water Supply and Sanitation” that affects women’s life greatly as consumers.

The organisation pointed out that in the sub-plan for minorities, no specific allocation was made for minority women or female headed households by the Ministry of Minority Affairs and that inadequate allocation had been made for several crucial schemes for women.

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