| While deadlock over the women's reservation bill continues,
women activists now are demanding 'gender specific budgeting' as the new
way of addressing women's issues in India. The concept of 'Gender specific budget' calls for separate budgetory allocations for women in the national budget. "Through this we are trying to bring in provisions as per which there will be separate allocations for issues related to women " says Dr Ranjana Kumari, President of 'Women Power Connect', a non governmental organisation dedicated to women development. "As per figures available with us, only one per cent of the total budget is used for women's issues. This trend has to be changed," she says. The proposal forwarded by the women's organisations to the Finance ministry has asked for not only allocations in the women education sector, but also for concessions and subsidies for women entrepreneurs. Issues related to female foeticide and sexual harrassment also have been brought under the ambit of this propsal. "The problems of female foeticide, sexual harassment at work place, education are so diverse that they need sound financial backing," says Kumari. "Through gender budgets we would also be able to highlight the major gap that exists between the women related policy statements of the government and the resource committed for their implementation," says Benita Sharma, a gender consultant with International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), an international non-profit organisation. |