{"id":328596,"date":"2025-03-03T17:14:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T11:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=328596"},"modified":"2025-03-04T09:58:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T04:28:28","slug":"indias-gender-budget-2025-lacks-care-investments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-gender-budget-2025-lacks-care-investments\/","title":{"rendered":"India’s Gender Budget 2025 lacks care investments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source<\/strong>: The post India’s Gender Budget 2025 lacks care investments has been created, based on the article \u201cCentring care in India\u2019s economic policy<\/strong>\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu<\/strong>\u201d on 3rd March 2025.<\/p>\n

\"India's<\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic:<\/strong> GS Paper2- Governance-Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.<\/p>\n

Context<\/strong>:\u00a0 The article highlights India\u2019s increased Gender Budget. This growth mostly stems from the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, not from new care investments. Women face heavy unpaid care burdens. The government must invest in care infrastructure. That fosters inclusive growth and empowerment.<\/p>\n

For detailed information on Union Budget 2025-26 supports women\u2019s economic growth<\/strong> read this article here<\/a><\/p>\n

What is the main highlight of the Gender Budget 2025?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. The Union Budget for 2025 allocated a record \u20b94,49,028.68 crore to the Gender Budget (GB).<\/li>\n
  2. This is a 37.3% increase from FY24, making up 8.86% of the total Budget.<\/li>\n
  3. The rise is mainly due to the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which covers 24% of the GB.<\/li>\n
  4. However, there were no significant investments in care infrastructure or new gender-responsive schemes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Why is care infrastructure important for women?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. Globally, women spend about 17.8% of their time on unpaid care and domestic work (UCDW).<\/li>\n
    2. In India, women do 40% more UCDW than those in South Africa and China.<\/li>\n
    3. The International Labour Organization reports that 53% of Indian women are outside the labour force due to care responsibilities, compared to just 1.1% of men.<\/li>\n
    4. Poor women often work 17\u201319 hours daily, balancing paid work and household duties. This leads to \u2018time poverty<\/strong>\u2019 and affects their well-being.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      What challenges do women in the Global South face?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
        \n
      1. Women in the Global South perform a wide range of unpaid tasks beyond household chores, including farming, water and fuel collection, and cooking.<\/li>\n
      2. They spend up to 73% of their time on unpaid activities due to poor infrastructure.<\/li>\n
      3. Indian women spend nearly five hours daily collecting water, compared to 1.5 hours for men.<\/li>\n
      4. Climate change worsens this burden, with water-related unpaid labour in India projected to reach $1.4 billion by 2050.<\/li>\n
      5. Limited public investment and social norms assign care work to women, increasing their workload.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        What solutions does the Economic Survey propose?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
          \n
        1. Increase Care Investments<\/strong>: Allocate more funds to care infrastructure. Despite a 37.3% rise in the Gender Budget for 2025, there were no substantial investments in care infrastructure.<\/li>\n
        2. Expand Access to Water<\/strong>: Strengthen the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) for 100% potable water coverage by 2028, as women spend nearly five hours daily collecting water compared to 1.5 hours for men.<\/li>\n
        3. Adopt the \u2018Three R Framework\u2019<\/strong>: Implement Recognise, Reduce, Redistribute, and Represent unpaid care work. Investing 2% of GDP in care infrastructure could create 11 million jobs.<\/li>\n
        4. Use the Urban Challenge Fund<\/strong>: Utilise the \u20b91 lakh crore fund to develop care infrastructure, inspired by Bogot\u00e1\u2019s Care Blocks, to reduce women\u2019s unpaid work.<\/li>\n
        5. Involve Women in Decision-Making<\/strong>: Enhance women\u2019s representation to ensure gender-responsive policies, which can be six to seven times more effective.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Question for practice:<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Examine how the lack of investment in care infrastructure despite the increased Gender Budget for 2025 impacts women’s unpaid care burdens in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Source: The post India’s Gender Budget 2025 lacks care investments has been created, based on the article \u201cCentring care in India\u2019s economic policy\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 3rd March 2025. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper2- Governance-Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes;… Continue reading India’s Gender Budget 2025 lacks care investments<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":328690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230],"tags":[300,212,10498],"class_list":["post-328596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","tag-governance","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Indias-Gender-Budget-2025-lacks-care-investments.png?fit=1280%2C850&ssl=1","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}