Gender Equity And Social Inclusion And The Union Budget 2024-25

Press Release

Naushaba

IMPRI Gender Impact Studies, IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, hosted a panel discussion on Gender Equity and Social Inclusion under the Union Budget 2024-25 under its 5^th Annual Series of Thematic Deliberation and Analysis of Union Budget 2024-25 on 28 July 2024. The objective was to delve into how the Union Budget 2024-25 addresses issues of gender equality and social inclusivity, and initiatives that aim to foster a more equitable and inclusive society.

Prof Vibhuti Patel, a visiting distinguished professor at IMPRI, opened the discussion by briefly reviewing the expectations and demands from the Union Budget 2024-25. She explored the need for an all-inclusive budget and mentioned how the recent budget has allocated more than Rs. 3 lakh crore for schemes benefiting women and girls with Pradahan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan to improve the socio-economic condition of tribal communities. She initiated the session by providing a comprehensive overview of the Actual Budget for 2022-2023, the Budget for 2023-2024 and the Revised Budget for 2023-2024, and the Union Budget for 2024-25.

Prof Patel further questioned the contradictory trends that can be seen with the complex unfolding highlighting hardly any improvement in the roadmap towards Gender equity and social inclusion. The Feminist Foreign policy since its implementation has been demanding gender equity and social inclusion at all levels, by gender, here we mean non-binary people too. However, such a gender-neutral and all-inclusive framework is still absent from the recent budgetary point of view.

Apart from framing schemes, the work at the implementation level is all also missing. For instance, the budgetary allocation for the Nirbhaya Fund scheme has not only decreased but there also hardly any utilisation of such funds by the states. Only 2 to 3 of the total Indian states have utilised 50 to 60% of the funds allocated. She handed over the discussion to the distinct panel starting with Prof Paramita Saha.

Prof Paramita Saha, Professor at the Department of Economics, Tripura University, presented an overview and backdrop for the Union Budget 2024-25. She specifically mentioned the social inclusivity of the budget by emphasising on Sabka Saath, Sabka Vilas and Sabka Vishwaas. The Budget specified 4 major castes, namely, Garib (Poor), Mahilayen (Women), Yuva (Youth) and Annadata (Farmers). There is a robust annual GDP growth rate of 8 % with expenditure lying at 48,20,512 Cr. There is a revenue deficit of 1.8 % and inflation is under control but the problem areas lie in food inflation, inequality and the shrinking size of the budget.

The Union Budget priority was Productivity and Resilience in Agriculture where the government aimed to attain self-sufficiency in oilseed production. Budget also announced introducing Natural Farming to 1 cr farmers across the country with certification. Digital Public Infrastructure was also the talk of the town with the issuance of Jan Samarth-based Kisan Credit Cards. Under the employment and Skill area, incentives were provided to corporates for first-timers which will supposedly benefit 210 lakh youth. By reimbursing EPFO contributions of employers, the government claimed to generate an expected 50 lakh jobs. Educational loans to the students will also be provided but the concern for Prof Saha was that in the end, these were loans and not scholarships, waivers or stipends.

Concerning women, to increase their participation in the workforce, a section of the budget was allocated for opening up hostels as well as 83.19 cr was allocated for skilling women under National Skill Training Institution.

A scheme-wise budget allocation for 2024-25 shows a marginal increase or stagnancy as compared to the previous year’s allocation. Allocation for MGNREGA increased from 60,000 to 86,000 and a slight increase was seen under the PM AJAY and PM VKY scheme from 2050 to 2140 and 4295 to 4300 respectively. While PMGSY was left untouched at 19000. Concerning SC and ST, a total of 165492.72 and 124908.95 were allocated respectively with a nominal increase from the last year. While, for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, a reduced sum of 12386 was allocated as compared to last year.

Prof Saha remarked on this budget implication on her native region of Norh-East. There was a total of 9.9% increase in budget allocation as compared to 2023 allocation, however, the allocation for infrastructural development of NE lay stagnant at 2491 Cr. She offered possibilities for the progress and sustainability of NER with the budget by emphasising on natural farming, floriculture and its unique cuisine which needs branding to help flourish it over a long sustainable period of time.

Prof N. Manimekalai, Director of the Centre for Women Development Studies, New Delhi, provided a comprehensive analysis of women and other marginalised workers in the informal sector and their decreasing participation. She has worked closely with the women working in the garment sector as a part of her research and explained how these workers have neverending long hours but with limited pay and no gap. She shifted the attention towards the need for decent working conditions in the informal sector. Despite many of the government employing schemes much of the employment is provided on a contractual basis which leaves these workers in a state of uncertainty with no incentives as offered by government jobs.

The need for a well-framed social security scheme has been in demand since the 1991 LPG reforms, however, a rigid framework has still not been made. Many workers are denied basic benefits from their hard work as given under permanent employment. She emphasised on how under the recent budget many of the sectors from health to education and social sector have been privatised under the government.

Even then focus of the budget is more on the digitisation of the programs for agriculture and other informal sectors. However, the issue arises when many of these policies and schemes have not been implemented properly because of various reasons including red tapism. Then, how much-digitised schemes will help in their implementation and reaching the people it is made for? Many of the schemes are not reaching and benefiting the poor section of society.

Taking into account the skill and employment, Prof Manimekalai questioned the uncertainity of the formulated schemes as for “degrees do not provide employment.” There is uncertainty over whether such interns will be provided jobs after their term completion. Furthermore, the issue of increasing dropout has been left in the shadows.

The Education sector presents 12% of the budget and 6% of the GDP which is still below India’s neighbouring developing countries. This is one of the main reasons for India’s poor results in the global gender parity index and various others for the matter. If many of these social sectors are privatised, then the question of how these corporate companies will reach the marginalised and rural section of the society. No such clear framework for the implementation of the budget policy has been provided by the government in its recent budget.

In addition, there is a lack of awareness of such schemes among women and the poor, hence, there is a need to focus on allocating funds for awareness of such beneficial programmes as well. Apart from fund allocation, there is also a grave concern for fund utilisation, in this case under SC and ST as a result, the funds and programmes get lapsed and do not reach the people in need. The area of policy making, implementation and awareness needs to be fulfilled for effective implementation.

Dr Aditi Kapoor, Co-founder and Trustee of Alternative Futures, New Delhi, called the Union Budget “a promising one but there is a lot more to work upon.” She expressed her views on Budget implications on Climate Mitigation and the Agriculture sector. Climate affects informal labour the most and this is where the budget talk is lacking.

Although there is a 1.3 per cent increase in budget allocation, however, Pollution which is a major environmental concern is not focussed upon this year. Pollution equally impacts all sections of society and there should be an increased emphasis on controlling it. CPCB budget also saw an in 6.5 % but it didn’t specify where this increased sum will be spent, whether for making new equipment or mitigating the pollution levels. This reflects that very little is done in terms of climate resilience.

An increased amount of focus can be seen in infrastructure development for flood relief but again an effective policy formulation has not been presented. To this, women are left out and many of the previous schemes have never taken off before.

There is also a need to check on drought control and 25% of the areas come under desertification and there is increasing deforestation as well for developmental projects. Hence, there is a need for a renewed focus on drought mitigation. At the same time, the national coastal mission has also seen a 6.7% increase but with an uncertain idea of where such funds will be allocated and to what states especially. The emphasis on investment in solar rooftops according to Dr Kapoor is a great idea.

Under the Agriculture sector, Dr Kapoor was highly impressed with the idea of Natural Farming as much of the sector is occupied by women which will further help the inclusion of women in employment. However, there is a need to focus on skill development in such areas, technology creation and plans for efficient mitigation of Climate Change. Done Didi scheme can flourish the sector but there is a need to focus that women do not end up becoming only renters while their men take all the benefits. There are big gaps in the 2024-25 Union Budget and much more investment is needed to be done to improve climate mitigation and resilience, and inclusion of women and other marginalised communities.

Dr Aditi Sawant, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, called the 2024-25 Union Budget as a “Bandage and not a troubleshooter.” She briefly provided an overview of coherent strategies to ensure effective budgeting. Agriculture contributes 17% of the GDP, however, only 3% of the budget is allocated and hence is the least looked upon sector like rural development. In her panel discussion, she primarily focussed on three areas, namely, women’s participation in the agriculture sector, social inclusion and exclusion, and budget allocation for the agriculture sector. Her research has been primarily focused on the agricultural sector.

Less than 5% of the women contribute to budget decision-making, their inclusion in decision-making as well as benefits incurred from the schemes implemented by the government are very low. Lakhpati did scheme and various others are framed well, however. many such schemes practically have not helped women farmers. Much of the data on such schemes is also not available to show its effectiveness.

Considering the recent trend of digitising agricultural schemes is much of a chimaera. As 70 to 80% of the people in rural areas have phones but many do nit use it for agricultural purposes. A maximum of the population involved in the agriculture sector are unaware of the schemes and they do not have know-how on how to use such digitised schemes. Even the data provided on mobile phones turns out to be inaccurate, in this case, the weather forecast.

In her recent book, ‘Revolutonising Farming,’ she has focussed on shifting the concern and investment towards skill development and training programs rather than focussing solely upon infrastructural projects. The inclusion of providing 109 high-yielding seeds and cutting off custo duty on shrimp export are all sporadic and permanently beneficial initiatives. There is an excessive need to focus on the creation of vocational training programmes for the agricultural sector and the course on agriculture should be taught from class 9 to 12. Many of such schemes have been made but none of them are implemented effectively to help the sustainable growth of the agricultural sector.

Shri Shailesh Mishra, Founding President of Silver Innings Group, made a passionate plea at the panel discussion for the inclusion of elderly people in the budget allocation. 90% of the old people do not have income and are mainly dependent upon their children despite working hard for money throughout their lives. The informal sector does not provide incentives as the formal sector and government jobs especially. As a result, elderly people are left out of the framework. Many policies on senior citizens have been made since 1990s but again many of them have not been implemented yet.

The Union Budget of 2024-25 excluded senior citizens from its discussion for which Mr Mishra questioned whether the union government intentionally forgot senior citizens?” “How can a Viksit Bharat be possible without its elderly people?” Finance Minister, Sitharaman herself is 56 years of age but she did not take a minute to acknowledge.

Even much of the schemes have been taken away by the government including the railway concessions to them. Much of the area under it is also neglected which today forms a major concern for the ageing population. One such problem is of Dementia. There is an urgent need for a policy framework on Dementia among the ageing population as among them 10% of senior citizens face the issue of dementia.

The Maintenance and Welfare Bill for elderly people was passed by the parliament in the year 2007 but a 2019 amendment act is still under the hold of parliament for more than half a decade. Funds have been released by the union government for elder-friendly infrastructure but there has been so far no action upon it.

Many of the schemes like the Senior Citizen Welfare Fund Act, the national programme for the healthcare of the elderly and others have been lying dead as there is no data available on them. Senior Citizens constitute 35% of the voting population, however, their vote share has not been seriously presented in the Union Budget of 2024-25 and they don’t have much voice either.

Dr Neha Shah, Associate Professor at L J. University, Ahmedabad, presented calculated and well-thought social concerns under the Union Budget 2024-25. She briefly highlighted the present economic status of India by highlighting that the top 1% of income and wealth shares are at their highest historical levels and India’s top 1% of income share is among the very highest in the world. There is a common understanding of distributing justice by redistributing income as followed among all for social and economic justice. The tax distribution does not go with such an analogy. Direct taxes need to be progressive and not regressive, share of personal income tax and corporate tax under it lies at 19 and 17% respectively.

The Union Budget showed concern about addressing the problem of unemployment. The allocation for the social sector has increased to 56501 cr which is 2% higher than last year but if it is checked with the increased inflation, it shows a decreasing trend. Furthermore, on a plain level if allocations are seen with the previous year they show an upward increase. However, when seen from the last ten years, schemes like MNREGA and sectors Food subsidy, Social Welfare, Education and Health have shown a decreasing trend. The long-term trend shows that in most areas allocation has continuously gone down.

There has also been no significant rise in SC and ST budget allocation. No allocation has been made towards the National SC Finance and Development Corporation as well as the National Safai Karamchari Finance Development Corporation. On a positive note, there was a rise in allocation for Eklavya School. The Gender Budgeting however was highest since 2005-06 as there is recognition in increasing women’s participation in employment and entrepreneurship. In sum, the budget talked about gender equity and social inclusion but did not reflect much towards it.

Ms Deepa Pawar, Managing Trustee and Founding Director of Anubhuti Trust, Thane, presented a powerful voice of her community as well as the other marginalised sections. She complained to the Union Government for not getting their statistics right as minimal funds have been allocated to such a big marginalised community of NT-DNT. The non-taxpayer section or the poor section of society has been left alone by the government under its new budget. The budget lacks sensitivity towards marginalised communities. The budget is not only a financial statement but a political statement too and non-sensitivity towards the marginalised section has led people to lose their trust.

Seen from the education sector, National Overseas scholarships provided for SC, ST, OBC and NT-DNT populations are so low that only 10 to 15 people all over India can afford to have them. The budget showed a lack of social justice and concern for marginalised communities. The marginal allocations that have been provided are not the need of the hour, as the community does not need temporary development rather there is a need for sustainable development. Ms Pawar ended her fruitful and powerful discussion by providing rather a bleak picture when talking about gender equity and Social Inclusion in Union Budget 2024-25.

The Panel Discussion ended with the Summaries presented by each of the panelists with everyone agreeing on the need to focus more the policy implementation and awareness. There is much more to be done for gender equity and Social Inclusion as no one should be left behind. Prof Vibhuti ended with her remarks on the discussion and summing it up by pointing out the areas that need to be worked upon, namely hunger, investment, increasing maternal mortality rate, inclusion of marginalised people and the need to reach the grassroots for effective formulation and implementation of Union Budget 2024-25.