Feminists argue that assigning resources to both men and women on 50:50 basis is against the principle of equity and hence there must be positive discrimination in favor of women when assigning resources under the national budget.They realize that the budget is the most important policy instrument of the government, because no other policy will work without money. Hence they want the government to draft gender budgets which will enable them to alter society irrevocably. They do not want women to be mothers and housewives and would rather break up the Indian family in the name of female empowerment.
The budget plays crucial role in India where most people live on government largesse in some form or other. Unfortunately successive governments of India have lent their ears to feminist propaganda and have passed gender budgets.
Gender budgeting was introduced by the government in 2005-06 in order to ensure that policy commitments were backed by financial outlays and that the gender perspective was incorporated in all stages of a policy or a programme. The government of India institutionalized the practice by forming gender budgeting cells in various ministries/departments and by introducing a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) in 2005-06. The GBS captures the total quantum of resources earmarked for women in a financial year.
The votaries of gender budgeting want to further extend the concept to include a gender based review of all levels of governance v.iz. Centre, State, District, town and village. Many Indian states already practice gender budgeting while formulating state budgets. The concept of gender budgeting is against the spirit of the Indian Constitution, which prohibits discrimination in allocating resources on basis of gender. It may also be worth noting that feminists used the United Nations to foist gender budgeting on India and South East Asia, despite the fact that the UN charter prohibits interference in the internal affairs of nations.
Gender mainstreaming as a strategy first appeared after the UN Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985. The key international legal instruments that are used to give legitimacy to this illegitimate act are:-
(1) The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) – 1979.
(2) The Beijing Platform for Action of 1995 has been ratified by 189 states and complements the CEDAW.
(3) The Millennium Development Goals: In the Millennium Declaration, 191 governments resolved to promote gender equality and empower women (United Nations, 2000).
Let us see the inherent inequality in gender budgeting in India. The Union Budget of India for 2013–2014 was presented by Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram on 28 February 2013. The budget was supposed to be women centric.
The gender budget had Rs. 97,134 crore and the child budget had Rs. 77,236 crore in 2013-14. (1)
In addition Rs. 1,000-crore Nirbhaya Fund (named after a rape victim) was proposed to empower women and keep them safe and secure.
What is striking is that not a paisa was earmarked for Men’s welfare, health or safety.
According to government statistics, more men commit suicide, and are subjected to violent crimes than women. Also more male children are subjected to sexual harassment. In spite of the above facts the government feels that men’s issue are too trivial to warrant any budgetary allocation. This is despite the fact that most taxes are paid by men. No feminist (the champions of gender equality) have ever raised a voice so that at least a token budgetary allocation is made for men’s welfare. This exposes their hypocrisy.
In India, feminist equality means money for women and girls, and not even a token amount for men and boys. Indian feminists have much in common with their Western counterparts. They all practice equality the same way.
(1) http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/womens-bank-other-sops-in-gender-budget/article4463856.ece
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