What Budget has for women: Rs 3 L Cr for hostels, creches, skilling programmes

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (July 23) stressed that women, along with the youth, farmers, and the poor, were the prime focus of her Budget for 2024-25, just like the interim Budget presented earlier this year.

“As mentioned in the interim Budget, we need to focus on poor, women, youth and farmers,” Sitharaman said at the beginning of her address.

So, what does the Budget have for women? “The government is allocating over Rs 3 lakh crore for schemes benefiting women and girls,” said Sitharaman. Among these are women-specific skilling programmes, hostels for working women, and creches to help them balance work and home.

Here is a list of the government’s plans to give women in India a better life:

Hostels and creches

The government will set up working women’s hostels to promote the participation of women in the workforce, Sitharaman said.

“We will facilitate higher participation of women in workforce by setting up of working women hostels in collaboration with industries and the establishment of creches,” she said.

Skilling programmes

In addition, the government will seek to organise women-specific skilling programmes and the promotion of market access for women SHG (self-help group) enterprises, she said.

Bid to lower duties for property purchase

The government will also look at the possibility of further lowering the duties for property purchased by women and making it an essential component of urban development schemes, Sitharaman said.

“We will encourage states which continue to charge high stamp duty to moderate the rates for all and also consider further lowering duties for properties purchased by women. This reform will be made an essential component of urban development schemes, encourages states with high stamp duty to moderate rates for all, lower duties further for properties purchased by women,” she said in the Budget speech.

What Economic Survey said

On Monday, the Economic Survey said India’s gender budget has consistently increased, from Rs 97,134 crore in FY2014 to Rs 3.1 lakh crore in FY 2025, now constituting 6.5 per cent of the total Union Budget.

India is shifting from women’s development to women-led development, said the Economic Survey presented in Parliament. It underscored the government’s legislative interventions and provisions to ensure women’s participation in various professions.

This includes improving access to basic necessities, such as sanitation, piped water and menstrual hygiene, along with ensuring safety, proper nutrition and equal opportunities in economic and political spheres.

Disappointment for women: Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said the Budget was a disappointment for women, as also for the poor, unemployed, farmers, and the neglected and marginalised people.

“The Union Budget presented in Parliament today follows the same old pattern, where except for a handful of rich and wealthy people, it offers little hope of good days for the country’s poor, unemployed, farmers, women, labourers, marginalised and neglected communities, and is full of disappointment for them (translated),” Mayawati said in a post in Hindi on X.