The government on Friday announced setting up of a committee to assess budgetary allocation through a gender lens.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke of the need for policies to encourage women-led initiatives instead of women-centric ones, a theme in the BJP’s manifesto too.
The Minister said that every verified member of a Self Help Group possessing a Jan Dhan Bank account would be given ₹5,000 over and above their savings and at least one woman per SHG would be eligible for a loan of up to ₹1 lakh under MUDRA scheme.
The Women and Child Development Ministry saw a 17.7% increase in its budgetary allocation, from ₹23,356.50 crore last fiscal to ₹27,584.37 crore during 2019-2020. Anganwadi services have seen an 11% hike in their grant to ₹19,834 crore. Other schemes that have seen a noticeable hike include child protection services (62% with an allocation of ₹1,500 crore), and working women hostels which got a two-fold hike at ₹165 crore.
For schemes on the safety of women, ₹500 crore has been set aside for the Nirbhaya Fund.