The Union Budget’s focus on women empowerment is merely paying lip service to the role of women, Mridul Eapen, member, Planning Board, has said.
Reacting to the announcements for women in the Budget, Dr. Eapen told The Hindu that though the Union Finance Minister stressed the importance of empowering women and facilitating their increased participation in the country’s development, particularly in the rural agrarian economy (‘gramin arthvyavastha’), it had failed to take note of their contributions as cultivators and agricultural labourers.
“The Budget had not announced anything for them. This is a serious lacuna. It has not even increased by ₹1 the wage rate under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to make the lives of rural women easier,” she said.
Dr. Eapen welcomed the Union government decision to form a committee to analyse and suggest ways to facilitate women’s participation in development.
The Minister had said the gender analysis of the budget had been in place for over a decade, but allocations had declined over time, she said.
“The review is good as gender budgeting of the Union government has been highly criticised. The allocations for women in education, health, and other schemes should be disentangled. However, no explanations for the allocations were being given by the Centre, unlike the gender budgeting in Kerala,” she said.
The proposal to expand the women SHG interest subvention programme to all districts would not make much of an impact in the State, Jiji R.S., programme manager (microfinance), Kudumbashree, said.
In four districts in the State, the effective rate of interest under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission programme of the Union government was 4%. In the remaining 10 districts, the subvention under the NLM combined with the State government policy to make loans available at interest rates lower than the Union government rate made the effective rate of interest in these districts 4%.
Loan of ₹1 lakh
The announcement of loan up to ₹1 lakh for one woman in every SHG under the Mudra scheme would make it easier for women to get loans, Ms. Jiji said.
Kudumbashree executive director Harikishore S. said availing loans for SHG women’s individual and group enterprises could become easier under Mudra.
Dr. Eapen too welcomed the proposal. “In the State, the experience has been bad so far. Even among Kudumbashree women, few, especially those in rural areas, have been able to get loans without collateral from banks,” she said.
