The All India Democratic Women’s Association expresses its disappointment at the budget proposals presented by the Finance Minister before the parliament today, for the year 2025-26. While presenting the budget the Minister has stated that the government works for ‘Sabka Vikas’, and focuses on the welfare of farmers, youth and women. But a closer look at the budget shows that these are false and misleading claims.
The lack of focus on the welfare of ordinary people and women is reflected in continuing decline in public spending and drastic reductions in social sector expenditure, especially when the estimates are adjusted for core inflation rates of 5-6 percent. The central government expenditure as a percentage of total GDP has declined from 14.55 percent in 2024-25 to 14.18 percent in the estimates of 2025-26. The revised estimate on centrally sponsored schemes for 2024-25, published in this budget shows a decline of 18 percent as compared to the budget estimate. This shows that the government has not been spending even the meagre allocations that it had made in the last year. In the budget estimates for 2025-2026 centrally sponsored schemes constitute only 10 percent of the total expenditure. This shows the lack of commitment of the government to the welfare of the most vulnerable sections of the society including women.
The estimates for gender budget constitute 8.8 percent of the total budgetary expenditure and abut 1.61 percent of the GDP. But Part A of the Gender Budget, i.e. 100 percent women-oriented schemes are only about 2 percent of the estimated budgetary expenditure. The budget for Ministry of Women and Child Development is only 0.53 percent of the total budgetary expenditure. A major component of the Part A schemes is the PM Awas Yojana which constitutes 74 percent of the estimate in 2025-26 as compared to 59 percent in 2024-25. This means that several other schemes for the welfare have been under funded or discontinued. The actual expenditures for prevention of violence against women and protection and rehabilitation of victims under Mission Sambal and Samarthya have declined substantially by almost 50 percent.
The continuing neglect of hunger and malnutrition is evident in the further cutbacks on food subsidy. The allocation is in fact 8394 Cr less as compared to the actual expenditure in 2023-24. The PM GKAY allocations have declined by 2250 Cr as compared to last year’s budgetary estimates. The effective decline is much steeper if we take the food inflation of 7-8 percent into account. Though the government has claimed that it is addressing the problem of nutrition by launching a new phase of Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0., the actual allocation is only 3 percent higher than the budget last year, which represents an effective decline. The funds released under the scheme for the last two years has been about 30 percent less than allocations. As far as LPG subsidy is concerned, only 33 percent of the last year’s budget was spent by the government.
The employment crisis faced by the women and youth has not been addressed in this budget. Like its previous budgets, the government is still under misconception that more reforms to get private investments and increase in credit limits will generate employment. The MGNREGS allocations have remained the same at 86000 Cr and 3.7 percent less than the actual expenditure of 2023-24. The allocation includes delayed payments of more than 3000 Cr, thereby amplifying the effective decline. The finance minister has stated that employment will be generated through support for micro, small and medium enterprises and has tweaked the rules to increase their credit limits, especially with respect to enterprises run by women. However, it has not addressed the root causes that have led to the shutting down of 48 percent of MSMEs over the last few years. Further, even though the government is advertising its support for street vendors, the allocations for PM SvaNidhi has seen no significant increase from the revised estimates of last year. The government has completely ignored measures for social protection of women workers like domestic workers, ASHA, anganwadi workers, and others in the informal sector.
The financial sector reforms announced in the budget will further the hold of private financial institutions in the life of women. The measures announced in agriculture state that credit limit for women SHGs would be increased. It is well known that about 60 percent credit to women SHGs is provided by private banks, MFIs and non-banking financial companies who give credit on high rates of interest. This will push the women further into debt traps.
The schemes in social sectors such as the National Assistance scheme has seen no additional allocations. The revised estimate for schemes on welfare of minorities is 50 percent of the budget estimate. Scholarships for students from marginalised sections have either been discontinued or there are massive reductions in their allocations. There are no significant increasing allocations for expansion of physical infrastructure or personnel in educational or health sectors.
It is clear that the NDA government has tried to advertise its support for welfare of middle classes in the wake of upcoming assembly elections. It has announced some exemptions in personal income tax. But any limited benefit of this measure will only go to a very small percentage of the population who pay personal income tax. There has been no relief for the ordinary working class households as rates of indirect taxes on items of daily consumption have not seen any reduction. The finance minister has not announced any intention of reducing GST on essential items. In this sense, the budget will not reduce the burden on women or their families.
The government has also exposed its regional bias towards states which are ruled by the NDA and its allies. It has announced a slew of measures for Bihar, while ignoring the needs of Wayanad which has seen a tragic natural calamity last year.
The AIDWA will hold protests to expose the pro-corporate and pro-rich intent of the policies of this government. It will intensify its struggle for increase in public expenditure for food security, employment, social security schemes, education and health.
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