Pune: UNICEF, Maharashtra, in its study, has revealed that Maharashtra’s Gender Budget for financial year 2020-21 is about 7,300 crore, around two per cent of state’s total budget and departments with highest allocations are from tribal, development, social justice, rural development, housing and public health.
The findings were presented by Anuradha Nair, social policy specialist, UNICEF, Maharashtra, on Saturday at online national conference on Women@Work, jointly organised by Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Mumbai School of Economics, Public Policy (MSEPP), India Development Foundation (IDF) and Pune International Centre.
According to Nair, the findings indicate that there have been no interventions for physical health disorders prevalent among women and no allocations for counselling centres for women’s mental health issues while health insurance for sex reassignment surgeries for transgender persons is not allotted. In higher education, no measure is undertaken to prevent dropouts, while the financial assistance for higher education is only 1% of the entire education budget, she said.
“There’s a need for a ‘Gender Action Plan’ as women account for 48% of Maharashtra’s population. The reproductive, productive and community roles borne by women has not been addressed by the state. There’s no investment for women’s unpaid care work and to encourage their participation in the economy,” she added.
Soma Wadhwa of the IDF who manages the DISHA programme that aims to support underprivileged women in India learn marketable skills said, “For women empowerment, the challenge is to work toward overcoming internal barriers like personality and attitude drawbacks, lack of confidence and education deficiencies and external barriers like gender bias and stereotyping and absence of infrastructural, counselling, socio-political and economic support. We have to establish a continuum of services connecting education to skills, jobs, entrepreneurship, markets and growth.”
{{/usCountry}}Soma Wadhwa of the IDF who manages the DISHA programme that aims to support underprivileged women in India learn marketable skills said, “For women empowerment, the challenge is to work toward overcoming internal barriers like personality and attitude drawbacks, lack of confidence and education deficiencies and external barriers like gender bias and stereotyping and absence of infrastructural, counselling, socio-political and economic support. We have to establish a continuum of services connecting education to skills, jobs, entrepreneurship, markets and growth.”
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