Govt spent less fund on welfare of women: CAG

Jaipur: The latest report by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has highlighted that total expenditure against Gender Budgeting decreased from 78.6% to 62.4% during 2012-17.
The examination of leading schemes like Missing Gramya Shakti (MGS), Rajeev Gandhi Balika Empowerment Scheme (SABLA) etc has highlighted several loopholes.

The CAG observed that the Missing Gramya Shakti (MGS) which aims to strengthen women self-help groups through clustering, capacity building and handholding, saw no expenditure was incurred during 2016-17 against budget provision of Rs16. 60 crore. The director of women and empowerment informed in August 2017 that the scheme could not be implemented due to non-approval of work plan of MGS by the finance department.

Similarly, the Rajeev Gandhi Balika Empowerment Scheme (SABL) which aims at empowering adolescent girls of 11 to 18 years by improving their nutritional and health status, life skills etc saw only Rs 40 lakh was incurred against the budget allocation of Rs 101 crore during 2016-17 due to non-implementation of supplementary of nutrition scheme.

The CAG has also observed that National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) funded by the Centre is being implemented by Rajasthan Grameen Ajeevika Vikas Parishad which aims at creating financially sustainable and effective institutional platform of the rural poor. It was observed in the report that during 2016-17, only Rs 25 crore was spent against allocation of Rs 118 crore under his scheme due to non-receipt of funds from the Centre.

The Gender Responsive Budgeting (GIB) is a means to ensure that public resources are allocated in an equitable way to satisfy the most pressing needs of specific gender groups. During the budget speech of 2009-10, the state government announced preparations of GRB, which would enable gender based budget analysis of each department.