Write a precis of the following passage in about 150 words. Give a suitable title.

Gender budgeting is a policy with a primary goal of re-orienting the allocation of public resources,

advocating for an advanced decisionmaking role for women in importantissues, and securing equity in the distribution of resources between men and women. Gender budgeting allows the governments to promote equalitythrough fiscal policies by taking analyses of a budget’s differing impacts on the

sexes as well as setting goals or targets forequality and allocating funds to support those goals. Gender budgeting remedies the disadvantages and discrimination against women by incorporating them in the budgetary process and fighting marginalisation and exclusion from economic, political, and constitutional processes.

It is not a separate budget for women; rather it is a dissection of the government budget to establish

its gender-specific impact and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments. Given

differences in needs, Gender Budgeting is not about simply dividing government money 50-50 between men and boys on the one hand, and women and girls on the other. A simple 50-50 division may look equal, but it is often not equitable, or fair, because the needs of women and men and girls and boys may be different. Instead, Gender Budgeting looks at every part of the government budget to assess how it will address the different needs of women and men, girls and boys, and different groups of women and men, girls and boys. For example, in the area of health, male and female people will have similar needs in respect to influenza and malaria. But  women will have greater needs than men in terms of reproductive health.

Need for Gender Budgeting

The Constitution of India has mandated equalityfor every citizen of the country as a fundamental

right. Nevertheless, the reality is that women in Indiacontinue to face disparities in access to and controlover resources. These disparities are reflected inindicators of health, nutrition, literacy, educational attainments, skill levels, occupational status among others. There are a number of gender-specific barriers which prevent women and girls from gaining access to their rightful share in the flow of public goods and services. Unless these barriers are addressed in the planning and development process, the fruits of economic growth are likely to completely bypass a significant section of the country’s population. This, in turn, does not augur well for the future growth of the economy.

Gender Budgeting in India

India’s gender budgeting efforts stand out globally because they have not only influenced expenditure but also revenue policies at national and state government levels. The goal of Gender Budgeting in India is to ensure greater efficiency and gender equity in fiscal policy. Gender budgeting has  been integrated into many aspects of public finance, which includes informing tax reforms, revising  budget classification procedures to integrate gender in shaping intergovernmental fiscal transfers, fiscal  decentralisation efforts, and local budgeting, and assessing the effectiveness of public expenditure through the development of benefit incidence analysis.