Deepening gender responsive budgeting in India: progress and prospects

The assumption of gender neutrality of budgets continues to be challenged by feminist activists, scholars, experts and practitioners. As public finance decisions have far-reaching implications, integrating feminist approaches in budgeting can go a long way in actualising positive change in the lives of women and girls, especially those from intersectionally disadvantaged backgrounds. Gender responsive budgeting offers great potential to do so. This article makes a case for strengthening gender responsive budgeting in India as an effective public finance mechanism for empowering women and girls. FY 2024–25 marked two decades since the formal adoption of gender responsive budgeting strategies by the Government of India, which is a significant milestone in India’s progress towards gender equality goals. This article takes stock of the progress on this front to date. Further, it explores the prospects for gender responsive budgeting in ‘indivisible’ sectors where much remains to be done, and outlines some actionable policy considerations for enhancing overall implementation of this strategy at the national and the State levels. Deepening and re-envisioning ongoing efforts in this direction can accelerate India’s progress towards achieving its gender equality objectives.