Gender Budgeting

Gender Budgeting (GB) is a powerful tool for achieving gender mainstreaming so as to ensure that benefits of development reach women as much as men. 
It is not an accounting exercise but an ongoing process of keeping a gender perspective in policy/ program formulation, its implementation and review. 
GB entails dissection of the Government budgets to establish its gender differential impacts and to ensure that gender commitments are translated in to budgetary commitments.
The rationale for gender budgeting arises from recognition of the fact that national budgets impact men and women differently through the pattern of resource allocation. Women, constitute 48% of India’s population, but they lag behind men on many social indicators like health, education, economic opportunities, etc. 
Hence, they warrant special attention due to their vulnerability and lack of access to resources. 
The way Government budgets allocate resources, has the potential to transform these gender inequalities. In view of this, Gender Budgeting, as a tool for achieving gender mainstreaming, has been propagated.
Indian Budget:-
Since 2005-06, the Expenditure Division of the Ministry of Finance has been issuing a note on Gender Budgeting as a part of the Budget Circular every year.
This is compiled and incorporated in the form of Statement 20 as a part of the Expenditure Budget Document Volume 1 by the Expenditure Division of the Ministry of Finance. 
This GB Statement comprises two parts- Part A and Part B.

• Part A reflects Women Specific Schemes, i.e. those which have 100% allocation for women.
• Part B reflects Pro Women Schemes, i.e. those where at least 30% of the allocation is for women.

Gender Budgeting Cells (GBCs) in Union Government:

The GBCs are envisaged to serve as focal points for coordinating gender budgeting initiatives within their Ministries and across Departments. So far 56 Ministries/Department have confirmed setting up of a cell/nominating a nodal person.

Ministry of Women and Child Development, in collaboration with UN Women, has also developed a Manual and Handbook for Gender Budgeting for Gender Budget Cells for Central Ministries and Departments.