The gender budget received increased allocations in 2026, but experts point out that the increase may be short of what is required on ground.
The gender budget allocations in 2026-27 have increased to Rs 5.01 lakh crore from Rs 4.49 lakh crore in 2025-26. This is an increase of 11.55 per cent. The share of the gender budget allocations in the entire budget has increased to 9.37 per cent in 2026-27 from 8.86 per cent in 2025-26.
The Centre has pointed out that more ministries and union territories have been listed as recipients of the allocations. “This year a total of 53 ministries/departments and five UTs (union territories) have reported allocations as against 49 ministries/departments and five UTs in FY (financial year) 2025-26,” says a statement from ministry of women and child development. This is the highest number of reporting by the ministries/departments since the gender budget was introduced in 2005-06.
Numbers not enough
The budget made a few encouraging announcements, such as SHE Marts, which intend to evolve Self Help Groups (SHGs) to owning business, hostels for women and support for women in fisheries. But an overall and a few area-specific increases in the gender budget, which is arrived at by tracking allocations and expenditure for various schemes for gender equality and empowerment, may not be enough, say experts and activists. The increase in allocations do not address structural issues such as inequality, lack of equity, absence of basic amenities, violence, and environmental factors, many experts feel.
The allocations come under three parts. Part A lists 100 per cent women-specific schemes, Part B schemes with 30-99 per cent allocations for women and Part C schemes with less than 30 per cent allocations for women.
Part A, Part, B and Part C constitute 21.49 per cent, 72.56 per cent and 5.95 per cent of the gender budget respectively.
Largely invisible beneficiaries
Experts also remind that women-led development is not only a socio-economic necessity, but also a key to India’s economic growth. But the budget allocations do not show enough investment in women, both in terms of funds and ideas.
Besides, the allocations are most often integrated into larger schemes, which makes it difficult to differentiate the funds meant for women.
“When most gender spending is folded into general schemes, women become invisible beneficiaries. In the absence of clear targeting, intent rarely translates into impact,” says Poonam Muttreja executive director, Population Foundation of India, in a gender budget analysis on the organisation’s website.
Key boosts
In keeping with the trends of the recent years, the largestallocations under Part A are given to PMAY- Gramin (rural housing scheme), DAY-NRLM (poverty alleviation through livelihood scheme, women and SHGs are key); PMAY- Urban (urban housing scheme), LPG connections and Mission Shakti (for women’s safety; has two segments: Sambal and Samarthya).
In Part B, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY, which provides free food to the poor), Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), reproductive child health and Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 schemes get the most allocations.
ASHA workers remain poorly paid
Though overall health has received a slight increase in the budget, which has been mainly to push the growth of biopharma in the country, the allocation largely overlooks the boost needed for public health systems, which provides support to many women.
The budget also overlooks the women who form the backbone of India’s health system — “Nearly one million ASHAs and thousands of ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife) continue to work under conditions of low pay, insecurity, and limited professional recognition,” says the Population Foundation of India analysis.
“The budget for Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 see a negligible increase this year too, with the allocation of Rs 23,100 crore compared to Rs 21,960 crore last year (2025-26 BE), an increase of just 5.19%,” says a gender budget analysis by Feminist Policy Collective published on the website https://behanbox.com/. “This additional Rs 1140 crore translates to about 40 paise per day for the 9 crore beneficiaries of the supplementary nutrition programme, and insufficient to improve the quality of the meal provided or to include more nutritious items such as eggs and fruits,” it adds.
The analysis reminds that since 2018, the central contribution towards Anganwadi workers, who get Rs 4,500 from the Centre, with states adding their contribution, has not been revised. Anganwadi workers get a pittance.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao pushed back
The budget for Mission Shakti, including Sambal and Samarthya, has seen an insufficient rise. “Important schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, One Stop Centre, Nari Adalat, Mahila Police Volunteer, Women’s Helpline and so on are included in Sambal,” points out Feminist Policy Collective, “while critical programmes such as Ujjwala, Sakhi Niwas (working womens’ hostel), Palna (National creche scheme), and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana are included in Samarthya.”
The budgetary allocation for Samarthya has gone up from Rs 2521 crore in 2025-26 to only Rs 2573 crore in 2026-27, the collective says, “and even these small amounts that were allocated are not being spent, as suggested by the Revised Estimates (Rs 1678 crore, i.e. only two-thirds of the budget estimate)”.
Women’s security and livelihood
“The Mission Sambal, which forms a major component of women’s safety initiatives like One Stop Centres, has only a 50 crore increase over last year. Given the link between women’s safety and labour force participation, more funding for OSCs (One Stop Centres) in terms of remuneration as well as capacity building is the need of the hour,” says Anu Maria Francis from the Centre for Public Policy (CPPR) in an article on the organisation website.
“At the same time, allocations for Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban are halved, undermining sanitation and public safety, both critical determinants of women’s health and mobility,” says Population Foundation of India. “Gender-based violence is not just a law-and-order issue; it is a public health crisis. Yet funding for shelter homes, counselling, and crisis response remains grossly inadequate,” says Muttreja, who also talks about women’s livelihoods in the context of the gender budget.
“Cuts to the National Handicrafts Development Programme, from Rs 260 crore to Rs 205 crore, further weaken women’s livelihoods. Nearly 75 per cent of India’s weavers and artisans are women, many of whom need support to access credit, digital platforms, and markets,” Muttreja adds.
Experts also talk about the disproportionate spending on housing. “While the PMAY provided a safe shelter and ownership, a truly functional house requires access to safe drinking water, electricity, LPG connection, a waste management system and functional toilets,” says Francis. “The schemes in Part A and B partially support these essentials; however, data shows a lack of convergence. If a PMAY house has no Jal Jeevan Pipe connection or LPG refilling capacity, (it) shifts the costs on to women.”
The gender budget does not address the very important concern of “time poverty” for women – the lack of time caused by the performance of unpaid domestic labour – which not only have detrimental effects psychologically, socially and financially for women, but also keeps them away from the workforce, affecting the country’s GDP.