The gender budget — bigger allocations, little impact

The Union Budget 2025-26 has been hailed for its increased allocation towards women-centric schemes, with the total gender budget rising to ₹4.49 lakh crore, marking a 37.25% increase from the previous fiscal year’s allocation of ₹3.27 lakh crore. The increased allocation is substantial even if one factors in an inflationary rate of approximately 3.61%.

Despite rising allocations, poor results

The amount allocated for the gender budget has increased consistently — ₹1,71,006.47 crore in 2022-23, ₹2,38,219.75 in 2023-24, ₹3,27,158.44 in 2024-25 and ₹4,49,028.68 in 2025-26. This signifies the government’s clear intent to bridge gender disparities. But despite the increase in the expenditure, the economic benefits to women have not percolated in the same ratio. Specifically, tangible benefits to women, particularly from marginalised populations, including the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), have failed miserably. This is despite the government announcing many programmes for the marginalised. To illustrate, this year, a corpus of ₹300 crore has been allocated to the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM JANMAN) for the socio-economic development of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and ₹75 crore for the Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan, also aimed at tribal welfare.

Even though India has been drafting a gender budget for 20 years, it has failed to include evaluations from previous Budgets to inform a gender budget which incorporates the intersectionality of caste, class, and tribal identities. This has led to the failure of the schemes to transform the lives of marginalised women.

As Vikas Singh from Daang Vikas Sansthan, who works with widows of mine workers in Rajasthan, points out, “Schemes are very nice on paper, but digitization has created new barriers. Most women lack digital literacy, making accessing welfare schemes without middlemen difficult.” The government’s move to eliminate intermediaries through digitisation necessitates urgent investments in digital literacy programmes.

Outdated Census data, other gaps

Women from SC/ST communities face layered discrimination, making it vital to analyse how budgetary allocations address these intersections. In the Union Budget 2025-26, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs received an allocation of ₹14,925.81 crore — a 45.79% increase from the previous year’s revised estimate of ₹10,237.33 crore. However, specific allocations under the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) are not detailed in the available sources.

These sub-plans are integral to the Budgets of various Ministries, with the aim of ensuring targeted development for SCs and STs. The combined allocations for SCSP and TSP across all Ministries are substantial, reflecting the commitment to welfare. But there is a lack of gender-disaggregated data within these plans, which makes it challenging to assess their actual impact on SC/ST women. The last Census in India was in 2011, making current data outdated. This gap raises serious questions about how government policies are tailored without updated statistics, affecting accountability mechanisms.

According to the “Dalit Adivasi Budget Analysis 2023-24” report by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), over 35% of the funds allocated under SCSP and TSP are underutilised due to bureaucratic red tape and lack of community involvement. Complicated paperwork, procedural barriers, low outreach, and an inadequate dissemination of information hinder women from availing themselves of welfare schemes. Though women do not understand the nitty-gritties due to the financial jargon of the Economic Survey, they wait every year for “schemes”, “subsidies”, and government support that can make their life easier.

Schemes often fail to consider regional, cultural and social diversities, especially in tribal areas where access to education and health care remains dismal. The literacy rate among tribal women is 49.4%, compared to the national female literacy rate of 64.63% (Census 2011).

Issues to tackle

According to Sandeep Patnaik, a researcher and journalist working on women’s rights and panchayati raj issues, “Strengthening local institutions and ensuring better utilization of existing funds is as important as increasing allocations.” The role of panchayati raj institutions is critical in ensuring the last-mile delivery of services, yet they often lack the autonomy and the resources to implement gender-sensitive policies effectively. Also, the government needs to create strict rules to prevent the rule of “sarpanch husbands”, which has become one of the significant obstacles to women’s empowerment and upliftment.

Gender budgets must be designed after an audit that accounts for intersectionality of caste, class, and tribal identities at the central and State levels. Second, the government must adopt community-led participatory methods that involve women, especially those from SC/ST backgrounds, in planning and monitoring schemes. Evidence from Kerala’s Kudumbashree mission shows that community-led implementation significantly improves outreach and effectiveness. Establishing transparent monitoring systems to track fund utilisation and impact would be beneficial. The creation of a gender budget tracking portal could foster greater public accountability.

While the increased allocation for women in the Budget is in the right direction, real progress lies in its effective implementation. Without addressing the intersectional realities of caste, class, gender, and the digital divide, the gender budget will continue to fail women. For transformative change, policies must move beyond tokenism to ensure equity, accessibility, and accountability.

Bhoomika Choudhury is an international lawyer and researcher specialising in business and human rights, corporate accountability, and labour rights. Yukti Choudhary is an international human rights lawyer and researcher specialising in corporate accountability, labour rights, and sustainability