Gender Budgeting A Case Study of Kerala
LEKHA CHAKRABORTY
Research / Gender economy
One of the key goals of the Sustainable Development agenda adopted by governments around the world, including India is to achieve gender equality by 2030. Gender Responsive Budgeting is powerful tool to achieve this goal.
Gender budgeting has gained momentum globally with various countries started applying a gender lens to their existing budgets with an aim to promote gender equality and accountability in public financial management. Thus, Governments, while understanding gaps, and postulating ex-ante gender budgeting experiment a significant public financial management reform that ensures fiscal transparency and accountability while translating gender commitments into budgetary commitments. India has been at the forefront of promoting gender budgeting in Asia Pacific. Thanks to the works of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), a policy think tank under the Ministry of Finance to become instrumental in pioneering gender budgeting. The NIPFP by providing analytical templates to the Ministry to integrate gender budgeting within the existing classification of budget and shaping the gender budgeting process both at the national and sub national levels made a significant impact on the global fiscal policies. The process transcends four stages: knowledge building, creating institutional structures, capacity building, and installing accountability mechanisms.
Gender Budgeting in Kerala
Kerala has become the pioneer state in attempting gender sensitive planning and budgeting at the third tier since the introduction of People’s Planning and Democratic Decentralisation. However, the State reflects a paradox in terms of gender development. In fact, the high literacy rates and the dramatic decline in fertility did not translate into rapid growth in paid employment for women or upward occupational mobility in the State. The electoral arena of Kerala has also fallen short on women’s representation. There are two avenues through which democratic decentralisation can contribute to the empowerment of women: agency of women elected representatives; and new democratic space for local level intervention by women. Despite low levels of economic growth, Kerala has demonstrated a good model for appropriate public policies and redistribution strategies which can meet the basic needs of the people. However, Kerala has failed to translate high social sector achievements into comparable achievements in the material production sectors. This has resulted in economic stagnation, growing unemployment, and an acute fiscal crisis thereby raising questions about the sustainability of the ‘Kerala Model of Development’. It is in this context the new model of growth with equity intended to accelerate economic growth which was a political response to the stagnating economy of the state in the form of ‘People’s Campaign for Decentralised Planning’ has become a solution.
The feminisation of governance through the adoption of the 33 per cent gender quota created a new democratic space for local level interventions by elected women representatives. Kerala experienced the remarkable achievements in gender indicators in health and education on the one hand and extreme marginalisation of women especially in governance and work force participation on the other. The achievements in health and education have had no impact on the gender status as Dr. Thomas Isaac refers to in his paper ‘Democratic Decentralisation and Women Empowerment: Kerala Model,’ presented at the International Expert Group Meeting on Local Level Gender Responsive Budgeting at NIPFP in 2004. It was in this context that the Women’s Component Plan (WCP) was introduced by the state government by earmarking 10 per cent of the state’s plan outlay towards specifically targeted programmes for women. This was a proactive step to incorporate the gender perspective into the process of democratic decentralisation.
In 2008, the Government of Kerala started Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) by introducing gender intensive allocations in the budget. The author has analysed the State Budget through a gender lens and suggested the institutional mechanisms with the purpose of collecting gender disaggregated fiscal data which had been initiated at the state level. In the 2008 budget speech, the Finance Minister of the Government of Kerala announced that the state would be piloting gender responsive budgeting and establishing an office in the Department of Finance to co-ordinate data and information. Subsequently, the selected government ministries in the state designed innovative gender sensitive programmes related to infrastructure.
Impact of Gender Budgeting
Research has shown that gender budgeting can lead to a decline in gender-based violence and improve intergovernmental fiscal transfers. Furthermore, public investment policy can redress intra-household inequalities in terms of labour supply decisions by supporting initiatives that reduce the allocation of time in non-market work. Studies have also shown that gender budgeting efforts have significant impact on gender equality sensitive indices as compared to economic growth.
Challenges and Future Directions
Despite the progress made in implementing gender budgeting initiatives, there are still challenges to be addressed both at the national and sub national level. One of the key challenges is to give gender budgeting legal standing than a fiscal fiat. Another challenge is to incorporate care economy policies into macroeconomic frameworks, which can help to reduce the allocation of time in non-market work and promote more equitable and sustainable development outcomes. Though gender budgeting is a powerful tool for promoting gender equality, feminisation of governance needs to reshape power structures and decision-making processes. It has to challenge the existing norms and practices that perpetuate gender inequality to ensure inclusivity. By integrating unpaid care economy and strengthening gender budgeting processes, governments can ensure that their budgets are more responsive to the needs of women and ultimately leading to a more equitable society. With continued efforts and commitment, gender budgeting can be a game-changer in promoting gender equality.
Kerala’s gender budget has a yearon-year increase of 3.8 per cent in the allocation. The state has allocated Rs. 4840.12 crore, which is 20.8 % of the total Plan Budget of Rs. 23285 crore in 2025-26 excluding the allocation of Local Self Government Institutes. -Foreword, Gender Budget 2025-26, Govt. of Kerala
(The author is a Professor at NIPFP, an elected Member of the Governing Board of Management at the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF) Munich, a pioneer economist in institutionalizing gender budgeting in India, former Chief Economic Advisor (2004) to Govt. of India, and a research affiliate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, New York.) Books: Fiscal Policy for Sustainable Development in Asia Pacific: Gender Budgeting in India (Palgrave Macmillan), Fiscal Consolidation, Budget Deficits, and Macroeconomics (Sage Publications) Social Sector in Decentralized Economy: India in the Era of Globalization (co-author, Cambridge University Press. The author’s working paper on Gender responsive budgeting, as fiscal innovation: Evidence from India on “Processes” in which Kerala is a case study was published by the Commonwealth Secretariat, London.)