Budget ‘fails’ fairer sex test: Experts

The Union Budget 2011-12 fell short of expectation in respect of women-specific initiatives,experts said today with a National Advisory Council member maintaining that it "failed the test" in regard to both social sector and gender perspectives.

The Union Budget 2011-12 fell short of expectation in respect of women-specific initiatives,experts said today with a National Advisory Council member maintaining that it “failed the test” in regard to both social sector and gender perspectives.

The “relatively inadequate” increase in Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) outlay and decline in food subsidy received the most criticism as experts and activists took part in a panel discussion on gender-responsive budgeting here.

“Budgets can be visionary or inspirational. This one is certainly not. It fails the test in social sector and gender perspectives. How the ICDS allocation will accommodate the increased remuneration for anganwadi workers,” NAC member and development economist A K Shiva Kumar said at an interactive session after the discussion at the UN office here.

Noting that the Prime Minister will soon hold National Nutrition Council meet and the Women and Child Development Ministry has prepared a blueprint for accelerating ICDS and other schemes,he asked,”Where is the money for that?”

He pointed out that there will be need for additional subsidy after the food security bill is brought and said there is no provision for it in the budget. Kumar also talked about the “complete neglect” of the health expenditure issue.

Calling the budget “anti-women”,Jayati Ghosh,professor of economics at JNU,said the inflationary implications will hit women and children and “erode” the value of public spending. She also raised the issues of bringing under tax net some essential consumer goods which were “zero-duty” and the government’s “windfall” tax gain from global oil price hike.

She said there is lack of focus on rural sanitation and low allocation for strengthening public distribution system.

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BJD MP Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo and Kerala State Planning Board member Mridul Eapen also took part in the panel discussion on “Union Budget 2011-12: What Does it Mean for Women”,organised by UN Information Centre and NGO Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) on the occasion of the launch of UN Women.

Elaborating on a report on the issue prepared by CBGA,its executive director Subrat Das said the budget outlay for ICDS shows a “relatively inadequate increase” from Rs 9370 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 10330 crore in 2011-12 which may not be enough to absorb the hike in anganwadi workers’ remuneration.

In the gender-budgeting (GB) statement,only 11 of the 60 women-specific schemes have allocation exceeding Rs 100 crore,he said adding,the total quantum of funds reported in the GB statement as a proportion of total Budget has shown “less than expected” increase — from 5.5 per cent in 2010-11 (revised estimates) to 6.2 per cent in 2011-12.

A function was later held to mark the launch of UN Women,formally known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.