The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has said the Union budget will add to “the misery of the ordinary people, as it will lead to an escalation in the prices of essential commodities with the increase in the excise duty on petroleum and petroleum products by Rs.1 a litre.”
The resultant increase in the retail prices of petrol and diesel by more than Rs.2 a litre will place an additional heavy burden on the shoulders of the “aam aadmi” and “aam aurat,” who are already reeling under an 18 per cent rate of inflation in the last few months. This showed that the government had no strategy to stem the suffering of women workers and homemakers, who always bore the brunt of price rise, an AIDWA statement said.
The AIDWA called upon women from all walks of life to join in protests against the “repeated” hike in petrol prices and the move to decontrol prices.
The National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) said the budget not only failed to address the concerns of the majority of people, especially related to price rise, but would escalate the existing serious situation.
“This budget shows that the government kept in mind only the interests of the corporate sector, that too at the cost of the ‘aam aadmi’,” a statement from the NFIW said.
When the country was reeling under high price rise, the proposal on petrol and diesel would cause a further hike in prices. The rate of indirect tax proposed in the budget to address the fiscal deficit would also aggravate the food price inflation, the statement said.
“There is no mention of the universalisation of the public distribution system. Even though the Economic Survey points out that the agriculture productivity has gone down sharply, there is no attempt in the budget to revive the situation,” the NFIW said.
‘Inadequate’
While welcoming the acknowledgement of the existence of women farmers, the NFIW felt that the allocation for the section (Rs.100 crore) was very little to address their problems.
“While considering the existing grave situation of malnutrition and high maternal and infant mortality rates, the allocation to the NRHM and the overall allocation for the health sector itself is inadequate. More surprisingly there is no mention about children below six years old, differently-abled people, single women, women-headed families or even gender budgeting,” the NFIW pointed out.
