Union Budget 2012: What does it offer to women?

We celebrated 101th International Women’s Day this year. However, discrimination against women continues to be a devastating reality in our country. In order to ensure that policy commitments are backed by financial outlays and that gender perspective is incorporated at all stages of a policy or a programme, Gender Budgeting was introduced by the government.

The total magnitude of the Gender Budget has declined from 6.1 percent (2010-11 BE) to 5.8 percent (2011-12 RE). Further, there is a marginal increase of 0.1 percent in 2012-13 over the previous year. The coverage of ‘Gender Budgeting Statement’ in terms of the number of Union Government ministries/departments reporting in the Gender Budgeting Statement has remained stagnant at 33 for the sixth consecutive year. Except for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, there is no new addition. Moreover, no steps have been taken to review the format of the Gender Budgeting Statement.

The budget allocation for Ministry of Women and Child Development has been increased from Rs.16100 crore (2011-12 RE) to Rs.18500 crore (2012-13 BE), an increase of 15 % at current prices.

The Steering Committee on Women’s Agency and Empowerment for the 12th Plan had suggested several important interventions to address the gender based disadvantages confronting women and girls. Of these, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched a few namely, women’s helpline, development of distance learning programme on the rights of women, implementation of protection of women from domestic violence act, relief to and rehabilitation of rape victims albeit with token allocations for most of them. Infact, no funds have been allocated for Swayamsidha Phase II that as per the 11th Plan was supposed the main vehicle for women’s empowerment.

For most of the existing schemes, the outlays fall far short of those proposed by the Steering Committee on Women’s Agency and Empowerment for the 12th Plan. Allocations for schemes such as Priyadarshini, STEP, Hostels for Working Women have registered a marginal increase over the previous year. This is despite the fact that 2012-13 marks the first year of 12th Five Year Plan.

Most of the government flagship schemes continue to rely on underpaid labour of women. In the Budget 2012-13 also, while the role of ASHAs – the backbone of the National Rural Health Mission has been enlarged further, there is no mention by the Finance Minister to regularise their services. ASHAs will continue to get their remuneration based on activities they perform and targets they are able to achieve.

To ensure women’s empowerment in true sense, it is imperative that women’s capabilities and choices are enhanced. The Department of Science and Technology, traditionally perceived as not “women related”, has launched several interventions exclusively targeting women in order to promote women’s participation in technical fields. It has launched another new scheme, ‘Disha’ in this year’s budget to facilitate the mobility of women scientists. The government needs to emulate such interventions recognizing specific gender based disadvantages that women and girls encounter.

Women in politics: India ranks 105th in world

As the country celebrates Women's Day on Thursday, data on Parliaments across the world reveal that India, the largest democracy, lags much behind other countries including its neighbours such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal when it comes to women's participation in politics.

With only 11 per cent of representation of women in Lok Sabha and 10.7 per cent in Rajya Sabha, India ranks 105th in the world, according to the latest comparative data released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation that works for promoting democracy in the world.

India, the world's largest democracy, has only 60 women lawmakers in the current 543-member Lok Sabha, while there are 24 women MPs out of 240 members in Rajya Sabha at present. Two seats in Lok Sabha and five in the Upper House have been lying vacant.

While India shares the 105th position with West African country Cote d'Ivoire, it is ranked 85 places below Nepal and 53 places behind Pakistan. Even China at 60th spot and Bangladesh at 65 are well above India, according to the IPU data that are based on information provided by Parliaments by December 31 last year.

Only Sri Lanka and Myanmar are the neighbouring countries which are placed below India at 129 and 134 spots in the list respectively.

This sordid picture of women's participation in politics in the country has led women activists to demand greater political representation and call for the passage of the bill that promises 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament.

Emphasising the importance of Women's Day in the Indian context, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat has said, "This is an occasion to put pressure on government to pass long-pending legislations that would be benefit women, like the Women's Reservation Bill."

All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) general secretary Sudha Sundararaman also said if village panchayats can have 50 per cent reservation for women, then why cannot Parliament have 33 per cent.

"The government should stop paying lip service, and actually put words into action," she said.

Even in conflict-hit and resource-poor African countries like Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Tunisia and Tanzania, women seem to have fared well so far as their participation in national politics is concerned.

According to the IPU data, Rwanda tops the list with the highest number of women participation in politics in the world with having over 56 per cent of women representatives in the Lower House and more than 38 per cent in its Upper House.

With over 36 per cent women lawmakers, Tanzania is ranked at 18th place along with Spain. In Uganda (ranked 19), over 35 per cent of lawmakers are women, while Tunisia (34th) and South Sudan (35th) have over 26 per cent of female legislators.

Among the countries that have higher women participation in national politics included Andorra, a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, which is ranked second with over 50 per cent women legislators.

Then comes Cuba which has 265, or over 45 per cent, women in its 586-member Parliament, followed by Sweden with over 44 per cent women members in its Parliament.

Rich and powerful countries like the US, Britain, Italy, France and Germany are ranked 78th, 53rd, 57th, 69th and 21st respectively.

There are eight countries -- such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Belize, Palau, Micronesia, Nauru and Solomon Islands -- which have zero women participation in their national politics.