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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, 1 February, announced a one-time saving scheme for women, called 'Mahila Samman Saving Certificate', for a period of two years, with a fixed interest rate of 7.5 percent.
"One-time new small saving under 'Mahila Samman Saving Patra'. The deposit facility for the women and girls will be for a period of two years, with a rate of interest of 7.5 percent," Sitharaman announced while presenting Union Budget 2023.
The Finance Minister also stated that the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihood Mission "has achieved remarkable success by mobilizing rural women into 81 lakh Self Help Groups (SHG)."
"We will enable these groups to reach the next stage of economic empowerment through formation of large producer enterprises or collectives with each having several thousand members and managed professionally," she added.
No Major Schemes?
Budget 2023 is being hailed by the government as "women-friendly" – with Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development, saying that "respect for women has increased" in this Budget.
"I believe that in the budget, respect for women increased. I also welcome the announcement of National Digital Library for children & adolescents," Irani said.
But experts in the social sector say the Budget does very little for women.
"A major lacuna is that the budget does not have any new major schemes for women, though it does attempt to enable existing women's SHGs to reach their full potential," said Pranay Aggarwal, a sociology faculty at IAS Gurukul.
"Given the significant gender gap in India on all developmental indicators and coming from a woman Finance Minister, one expected women's issues to receive greater attention in the Union Budget."
What Was Announced in Budget 2022?
In Budget 2022, the word 'women' appeared only six times – with no specific new policies announced for women.
The Gender Budget has decreased from 0.71% of the GDP of the revised estimates for 2021-22 to 0.66% in the estimates for 2022-2023, according to an analysis by the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA).
The Budget for the Ministry of Women and Child Development as a portion of the expenditure has declined from 0.57% to 0.51%, with the ministry receiving Rs 20,263.07 crore.
The schemes under the ministry that focus on the safety of women, such as Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, One Stop Centres, Nari Adalat, Mahila Police Volunteer, and Women's Helpline, saw a decline in allocation from Rs 587 crore to Rs 562 crore.
Mission Vatsalaya of the same ministry, which includes child welfare and child protection services, meanwhile, saw a 63.5 percent hike to Rs 900 crore.
(This is a developing story. It will be updated with more details.)
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