FINANCE Minister while presenting her record 8th budget in a row clearly tried to appease the country’s urban middleclass which was getting very restless in recent times. However, the women and marginalised sections of the society are facing harsher difficulties due to the stagnant rural real wages for men and women as per the Labour Bureau data and declined real monthly income for wage/salary employed men and women as indicated by the Economic Survey 2025. The women and marginalsed sections are not only economically backward but they also face gender and social discriminations.
The Indian Constitution provides right to equality to all and also directs the state to take measures for development and empowerment of women and socially and educationally backward classes. The government budget, however, do not seem to have given adequate focus on the women and marginalized societies, though there have been some positive announcements.
The finance minister in her speech emphasized that the vision of Viksit Bharat encompasses, among other things, 70% of women in economic activities. Currently women work participation ratio (WPR), however, is just 40.3% compared to 73% men WPR. The government announced in budget 2025-26 to launch a “comprehensive multi-sectoral ‘Rural Prosperity and Resilience’ programme” in partnership with states, which will focus on 5 lakhs rural women, young farmers, rural youth, marginal and small farmers, and landless families. It is not clear, however, that what would be the budget for the programme and it will be anchored by which ministry.
Other announcements for women include launch of a new scheme for First-time Entrepreneurs in line with the current Standup India scheme, which will benefit 5 lakhs women, Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste first-time entrepreneurs and enhancing the unit cost norms for the anganbadi services under Saksham Anganwadi and POSHSN 2.0 scheme. Budget for this umbrella scheme, however, has increased only marginally from Rs. 21,200 crores in 2024-25 BE to Rs. 21,960 crores in 2025-26 BE.
Allocations for the Ministries for Marginalized groups
Overall budget allocations to the Ministries catering to the marginalised sections of the society is also not very promising. As the table below shows there is a no major increase in the budget allocated to these ministries except for the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which has been given a 14% increase from the current year’s budget. Both departments of Social Justice and Empowerment and Empowerment of People with Disabilities have seen less than 5% increase over the current years budget allocation, while the budget for Ministry of Women and Child Development has increased by a meager 3% over the current year’s allocation.
Table1: Budget for Ministries/Departments for the marginlaised sections (Rs. Crores)
Source: Union Budget, various years
Even more troublesome trend, however, is lower utilization of the allocated budget to these ministries over the years. Year after year the actual expenditure by these ministries is lower than the budget estimates. During the current year (2024-25) also the budget for all the above ministries/departments have been revised at lower than the budget estimates. The actual expenditure of Ministry of Minority Affairs has particularly been very low during the years 2022-23 and 2023-24 at 16% and 5% of the allocated budget respectively. In the current year also the Ministry’s budget has been revised to Rs. 1,868 crores (2024-25 RE) from Rs. 3,138 crores (2024-25 BE). With closure of many schemes of the ministry and such lower level of budget utilization, its difficult to understand what the policy direction the government is taking for the minority communities.
Gender Budget and Budget for Welfare of SCs and STs
The union government also brings out Gender Budget Statement (statement 13) Statements on Allocations for Welfare of SCs and STs (statements 10A and 10B). These statements show the allocations for schemes benefiting women and for SCs and STs across the ministries.
The allocation for welfare of STs and SCs increased only marginally by 3.48% and 1.80% respectively.
Table2: Budget for Welfare of SCs and STs (Rs. Crores)
