Report titled ‘Charting New Paths for Gender Equality and Empowerment: Asia-Pacific Regional Report on Beijing + 30 Review’ highlighted that adoption of GRB by India demonstrated strong commitment to ensure the efficient allocation of resources.

• Report has been published by UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and UN Women. 

What is GRB or Gender Budgeting?

• A tool for gender mainstreaming which uses the Budget as an entry point to apply a gender lens to the entire policy process.
  • It is not a separate Budget and also not about spending the same on women and men.
• GRB in India
  • Genesis: Institutionalized by the Ministry of Finance in 2005–2006.
    • Gender Budget Statement is presented by the Government in budget session.
  • Nodal Agency: Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) 
  • Consists of two parts: 
    • Part A: Encompasses schemes that allocate funds exclusively for women.
    • Part B: Represents the dominant share in the budget – comprises schemes that allocate a minimum of 30% of funds towards women.
  • It also comes under the Samarthya, sub-scheme of Mission Shakti. 

Key Challenges in implementation: Exclusion of key programmes that benefit women, lack of sex- disaggregated data, etc.