The optics of the interim Budget presentation on Thursday gave a cue into one of the main focus areas of the Narendra Modi government — Nari Shakti.
Flanked by her all-male team, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stood out as the lone but powerful woman who presented the budget for a record sixth time in a row.
One of the main achievements of the budget, or vote on account, was its focus on women power, keeping up with the slogan coined by the government — ‘Saksham Nari, Sashakt Bharat’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Sitharaman for her budget’s focus on women. The interim Budget, for example, has increased the outlay from Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore for the ‘Lakhpati Didi’ scheme. The initiative aims at training women in self-help groups so that they can earn a sustainable income of at least Rs 1 lakh per year per household. Sitharaman also said the 83 lakh self-help groups with nine crore women were transforming the rural socio-economic landscape with empowerment and self-reliance.
The focus of the initiative and others is to ensure women empowerment. The finance minister announced that 30 crore Mudra Yojana loans were given to women entrepreneurs. In fact, as per finance ministry estimates, there has been a rise in women labour force participation rate from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18 to 37 per cent in 2022-2023.
In sync with this is the story of more and more women coming out and getting better opportunities. For instance, there has been increase in women enrolment in higher education by 28 per cent in 10 years. There is also 43 per cent female enrolment in STEM courses now.
Recently, the government and the Women and Child Development Ministry, along with the labour ministry, announced a slew of goals with directives for corporates and those who hire manual labourers — the most important being pay parity between men and women workers.
Basic health and hygiene is also something that the government and the interim Budget focussed on. Funds were set aside to immunise young girls in the 9-14 age group with cervical cancer vaccines. Cervical cancer is the second-most frequent cancer among women in India.
While the interim Budget did not make too many announcements, given its nature and limitations, the focus on women makes it clear that the government has more plans ahead for the group.
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