Budget: Sitharaman announces ₹3 trillion for schemes benefiting women, girls

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced ₹3 trillion for schemes benefiting women and girls in the Union Budget and said the government will facilitate higher participation of women in the workforce by setting up working women hostels and crèches in collaboration with industries.

She also said that partnerships would be created to organise women-specific skilling programmes and promote market access for women self-help group (SHG) enterprises.

“We will facilitate higher participation of women in the workforce by setting up working women hostels in collaboration with industries and the establishment of crèches. In addition, the partnership will seek to organize women-specific skilling programmes and promote market access for women SHG enterprises…. Working women’s hostels would be set up in the country to promote women’s participation in the workforce,” Sitharaman said while presenting the Budget in Parliament.

Earlier in January, the central government had launched inter-ministerial efforts to push for greater women participation in the workforce, with the launch of an advisory for employers to promote women participation at workplace by enforcing statutory provisions, release of the national minimum standards and protocol for crèches, focus on building more working women hostels, and a short public survey on facilities available for women at workplaces.

During a joint event titled “Women in the Workforce for Viksit Bharat” jointly organised by the Labour Ministry and the Women and Child Development Ministry, the former launched an advisory to employers to promote gender equality and women work force participation to further strengthen women empowerment.

According to the labor ministry advisory handbook, the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) indicates that there has been an increase in women’s workforce participation by 13.9 % from 22 % in 2017-18 to 35.9%in 2022-23. “Though women’s participation in the workforce has increased in recent years, there is ample scope for further improvement that can be addressed through effective implementation of existing policies by employers,” the ministry’s advisory stated.