An overview of gender responsive budgeting in India

Gender budgeting has been well-acclaimed as a key tool for empowering women as it incorporates gender perspectives, and considers issues related to gender at all levels and phases of development, planning, policy making, programmes, and delivery mechanisms. Additionally, it effectively addresses gender gaps in budget allocations, especially in representative areas such as education, health, and employment. Gender budgeting aims at enabling access to resources and ensures that government resources are allocated fairly amongst all. Gender budgeting is thus creating new horizons of women empowerment. The concept of gender budgeting is becoming crucial and essential in the current Indian context as women are secluded, underestimated, and marginalised on numerous grounds. Keywords: Gender budgeting, Gender equality, Women empowerment.