Expectations from a gender lens in Budget 2026-27, Pg11

Key Highlights:

• India's GDP sees only about 18% contribution from women, despite 40% being in the labor force.
• Time Use Survey (2025) indicates women spend 366 minutes/day on unpaid domestic work, up from 364 minutes in 2019.
• Over 75% of gender budget allocations in 2025-26 are integrated across general schemes, not specifically designed for women.
• MSME allocations for women account for only 0.9% of the budget, with most Mudra loans to women being under ₹50,000.
• The India AI Mission has a ₹660 crore gender allocation, representing 33% of the total program.

Detailed Insights:

• Women's time poverty significantly constrains India's economic growth due to a large share of unpaid labor and domestic responsibilities.
• The Union Budget and gender budget should be used to value, free up, and redistribute women’s time productively through targeted interventions.
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) should integrate with Jal Jeevan Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission, and Ujjwala to create 'gender-complete houses' with essential amenities.
• Childcare services need consolidation under a 'Care Infrastructure Convergence Window', learning from models like Karnataka’s ‘Koosina Mane’, to save women's time.
• Employment-Linked Incentive scheme should allocate funds to ensure at least 50% of new jobs are for women, with incentives for enterprises hiring women.
• MGNREGA (VB-GRAM G) requires renewed funding to maintain its gender focus, given women comprise over 50% of beneficiaries, and expand guaranteed employment.
• Women entrepreneurs need access to larger Mudra loans and support for scaling up businesses, along with financial, digital, and technological enablement.
• Targeted interventions are needed to strengthen women’s access to skill development and entrepreneurship in the AI-driven future of work.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Gender Budgeting: Government planning, programming and budgeting that contributes to advancing equality between men and women.
• Time Poverty: A situation where individuals lack sufficient time to pursue activities due to excessive time spent on essential tasks.
• MSME: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which are vital for economic growth and employment generation.