LiveMint: A budget friendly to women?

Malia Politzer

MaliMaliolita Politzer

A closer look at the ‘gender budget’ shows such allocations have remained at around 6% of the total budget outlay for the four years ending 31 March 2012

New Delhi: Budget 2011 included changes to several programmes that will disproportionately benefit women, although funding earmarked specifically for women’s programmes as a percentage of the total budget outlay remained unchanged for four years.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the creation of a women’s self-help group development fund with a corpus of Rs. 500 crore in fiscal 2011-12 “to empower women and promote their self-help groups”. Mukherjee also doubled remuneration for workers and helpers at anganwadis, or government-run creches, to Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 1,500 a month, respectively. The increase will benefit an estimated 2.2 million people, mostly women. Allocation for the women and child development ministry increased 15% fromRs. 11,075 crore to Rs. 12,733 crore.

Such changes, however, do not necessarily represent a shift towards a more gender-friendly budget. A closer look at the “gender budget”, a statement within the expenditure budget tracking provisions earmarked for programmes that primarily benefit women, shows that such allocations have remained at approximately 6% of the total budget outlay for the four years ending 31 March 2012. “It almost looks like a non-starter when you look at the way money has been spread across departments,” said Dr Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research. “I think that gender budgeting needs to be taken up more sincerely by all departments.”

The government first introduced the concept of “gender budgeting” in budget for the year 2005-2006, acknowledging a persistent gender disparity. Women, who represent about half the nation’s population, lag behind men with regards to access to education, health care and other development indicators. About 96% of working women are engaged in the informal sector. The “Gender Budget” statement was intended to be a tool to more effectively address such inequalities, by showing, for the first time, how much various ministries and departments were spending on programmes aimed at addressing the development needs of women. According to the original road map for gender budgeting, such expenditures were to be reviewed, analysed, and adjusted in order to maximize overall effectiveness.

“Gender budget statement is very important,” said Yamini Mishra, a gender responsive budget specialist with UN Women. “Before the gender budget statement was produced, there was no way to answer very basic questions of how much the government of India is spending on women.”

For the 2010-2011 fiscal year, total expenditure listed under the gender budget was Rs. 78,251 crore, of which Rs. 20,549.4 crore was earmarked for programmes that exclusively benefit women and Rs. 57,702.7 crore for programmes in which women were at least 30% of the beneficiaries. That translates to nearly Rs. 1,200 per woman a year.

Some programmes in which women are the sole beneficiaries—such asSwadhar which provides aid to women in difficult circumstances; Swayam Siddha which aims to empower women; and a scheme to provide hostels for working women—have registered a decline in allocation compared with fiscal 2010-11.

The proposed expenditure allocated towards Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, a programme that provides funding for women self-help groups, and a scheme for rehabilitation of rape victims, were marginally increased.

Kumari said the government should allocate more money for programmes that address women’s basic needs. “When you look at underdevelopment indicators, the main issues that hit you in the face are the health of women, the education of girl children and livelihood of women,” said Kumari. “The budget lacks sensitivity on all these issues.”

But Mishra said it’s important not to fixate on the gender budget statement when measuring the budget’s overall impact on women.

“It’s very important to go beyond the gender budget statement to make policies and schemes better funded and more responsive to women’s needs,” she said. “The revision of the angawadi workers is significant, but we should also complete the argument by saying that there are other things...that require attention if you really want to help women.”

Rights Reporters: Before & After Human Rights Training

Community radio could be monitored in Jharkhand not banned altogether if the govt fears naxals!

Jharkhand’s voices crushed
Author(s): Chhandosree Thakur
Issue: Jan 31, 2011

Naxalite fear prevents community radio stations

imageJainatullah Hussain (playing dholak) wanted to start a community
radio (Photo: Chhandosree Thakur)JAINATULLAH Hussain of Kisko block in
Lohardaga district is an unhappy man. He had been running a radio show
for adolescents who have health-related misconceptions. The programme
was broadcast through Prasar Bharti and the airtime was purchased by
Manthan Yuva Sansthan, a non-profit he had been working with.

Realising the need for more programmes for adolescents, he thought of
setting up his own community radio station. He applied for a Wireless
Operating Licence and allotment of frequency to the Information and
Broadcast (I&B) ministry. His application was rejected. Reason:
allowing community radio stations would give thrust to Naxalite
activities.

Hussain’s is not the sole case. An RTI application filed on August 12,
2010, revealed that around 25 applications from Jharkhand were sent to
the ministry in 2008 for setting up community radio stations in rural
and sub-urban areas, mostly by development organisations. All were
rejected at the final stage.

The I&B ministry had approved 10 applications. The Defence Ministry
too approved them on condition that “the organisations abide by the
broadcast protocols and do not air any programme that goes against the
national interest or contains anything amounting to contempt of
court”.

The final approval comes from an inter-ministerial committee (IMC),
which has representatives from I&B ministry, home affairs, rural
development and defence ministries, Wireless Planning and Coordination
Wing, Prasar Bharati and Council for Advancement of People’s Action
and Rural Technology. On June 27, 2008, all except the home ministry
representative, favoured setting up the radio stations in Jharkhand.

“The home ministry representative produced an Intelligence Bureau (IB)
report that said Naxalite activity in Jharkhand was at its peak and
controlling or combating Naxalism in the state had gone beyond
control. Under such circumstances permission for community radio
stations might intensify their movement. Thus, all the 10 applications
were rejected,” an I&B ministry official said.

There are more than 125 community radio stations in the country and
most of them are located in Naxaliteaffected states like Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and
West Bengal. Jharkhand has none.

State Home Secretary J B Tubid said, “We are unaware of this matter.
The IB is under direct control of the Union Home Ministry. Had it come
to us, we would have discussed it with the higher authorities, taken
view of other Naxalite-affected states, shared their experiences and
taken a decision only after assuring the pros and cons.” Naxalism
cannot be a ground to take away people’s fundamental rights, said
Rajiv Kumar, a senior legal practitioner at the Jharkhand High Court.

“Naxalism evolved from the failures of the governments. I am not
pointing out any political party as such. The home department itself
believes that Naxalism cannot be controlled without social inclusion,
people’s participation and initiation of development activities.
Moreover, community radio has been considered an important medium for
rural development,” he added.

Shashi Bhusan Pathak, a human rights activist, said, “Naxalism is not
the reason for refusing permission. The government does not want
people to be aware about their rights. Earlier, right to education was
curbed by converting schools to military camps. Now, freedom of
expression has also gone.” The objections have come despite the
Centre’s acknowledgment to the Community Radio Station policy in 2002
after seeing its success in other states.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/32908

Laadli awards (northern region) event in Delhi 14 March - everyone welcome!

Hi everybody!
The Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity, Northern Region are being held on Monday, the 14th of March, 2011 at Delhi. The e-invite is enclosed. Please block the date and join us at the function at Delhi. Since it is not a ticketed event we request you to forward the invite to all your friends, family members and colleagues who support the cause of the girls child in Delhi. Please help us make the event a grand success.
I would greatly appreciate if you would mark Bhairav on the mail when you forward it so that he can pursue with the RSVPs.
Look forward to an enthusiastic response from you
Best regards,
Sharada

Free books in regional languages for NGOs willing to pay for shipping

From Gautam John gautam@prathambooks.org

Hello Everyone:

I work with Pratham Books [1] in Bangalore.

This year, we were rationalising our books in stock and realised that
we had excess stock in the following languages:

Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, Punjabi, Telugu and Urdu

A few of the books are in the 3-6 age category but mostly in the 7-10
and 11-14 category.

What we really wanted to do is to give these away, for free, to
organizations that could:

1. Utilize them effectively.
2. Will not otherwise be able to afford them and have not been able to buy books from us.
3. Pay for the shipping costs.
4. Be willing to write and photograph the journey the books take within their organization.
5. Be able to absorb large numbers of books - preferably 2000+ because the internal and shipping costs are much too expensive.

Urdu is a big focus for this effort.

We will apply some sort of filter on incoming requests.

That said, I was wondering if you might know any organizations that fit this bill please?

Best,

Gautam

[1] http://www.prathambooks.org/

SCHOLARSHIP ALERT: $36,000 in Student Scholarship from SAJA! Deadline March 15

For 2011 the South Asian Journalists Association is offering $36,000 in student scholarships in various categories. The goal of the annual scholarships program is to assist students with pursing careers in journalism.

If you are a high school senior about to enter college, an undergraduate, or a student starting or continuing your graduate studies, and you intend to pursue a journalism career, here is your chance to get help with your educational expenses.

The 2011 SAJA student scholarships include the following categories:

Three SAJA scholarships for high school students $1,500 each
One SAJA Engendered scholarship for an undergraduate student $1,000
Three SAJA scholarships for undergraduate students of $3,000 each
One SAJA Engendered scholarship for a graduate student for $1,000
One SAJA Atlantic Monthly New Media scholarship $1,500
Three SAJA scholarships for graduate students of $5,000 each
One SAJA CNN scholarship for broadcast journalism for an undergraduate student for $2,000
One SAJA CNN scholarship for broadcast journalism for a graduate student for $2,000
These annual monetary awards recognize the reporting abilities and commitment of emerging journalists. Students from across the United States, Canada and South Asia can apply for the awards. But applicants must be pursuing their education in a North American educational insititution. The judging is conducted by SAJA professional members.

Applicants with financial hardship may be given special consideration. Recipients are expected to give back to SAJA by volunteering at the annual convention or at other events during the year. They also must provide an update of their journalistic endeavors and achievements at the conclusion of the academic year.

APPLICATION DEADLINE:
Applications must be submitted via e-mail by 11:59 p.m. (Pacific time), Tuesday March 15, 2010. Applicants may be interviewed by phone or in person by a member of the scholarship committee. Winners will be notified in April.

Direct questions to students@saja.org

PLEASE NOTE: The SAJA Scholarships are made possible, in part, through the generous contributions of the Arun I. and Asmita Bhatia Foundation; Hansa and Ramesh Butani of Darshan TV; and CNN. Our many thanks to them.

Film Premere & Photo Exhibition 5 March in Delhi for Int'l Women's Day

Film Premere & Photo Exhibition on 5th March,2011 at India Islamic Centre Amphitheatre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, from 6pm to 9pm on the occassion of International Women's Day being organized by Human Rights Law Network. The theme of the film and photo exhibition is "Mera Haq Surviving Pregenancy in India."