A workshop on gender responsive budgeting will be held under the aegis of Women’s Empowerment Directorate and UN Women at the Academy of Administration on December 17.
Heads of concerning departments and financial advisors will participate in the workshop, which will be concluded by Chief Secretary Anthony DeSa. At the workshop, Programme Officer UN Women for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri lanka Smt Bhumika Jamb will throw light on objectives of the event and UN Women, challenges of budget and plans. Navnita Sinha, Research Analyst, UN Women will inform about gender analysis of schemes, Mridul Apen, former member of State Planning Commission, Thiruvananthapuram will give information regarding connection of gender responsive budget with mainstream sector and Pallavi Mali, Programme Director, Sanket will present a report regarding gender responsive budget.
According to Commissioner Women’s Empowerment Kalpana Shrivastava gender budget not only lead to a better gender analysis, but also integrates budget under the plan. Madhya Pradesh government has endorsed gender responsive budget as an important point. Madhya Pradesh has the distinction of becoming the first state in the country to present gender responsive budget in year 2007-08. Emphasis is also being laid on it in the state’s women policy for years 2013-17.
She informed that innovative effort is being made for the first time for interaction between various departments, social organisations, corporate sector and media for making Madhya Pradesh’s budget women-oriented. Objective of this interaction is understanding importance of gender budget in development and plan a future strategy regarding it. According to the Commissioner, a strategy is being evolved to identify challenges that may come forth in the initiative of gender oriented budget through consultation with beneficiaries.