The Ministry of Women and Child Development provided details on India's gender budgeting framework and allocations in response to a parliamentary question. The Gender Budget Statement (Statement 13 of the Expenditure Profile) for FY 2026-27 reports an allocation of ₹5.01 lakh crore for welfare of women and girls, representing an 11.55% increase over the FY 2025-26 allocation of ₹4.49 lakh crore.
The institutional framework for gender budgeting is established through Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) guided by a Charter issued by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. These cells are mandated to function as focal units for coordinating gender budgeting initiatives within their respective ministries/departments. Their functions include identifying programs addressing gender issues, organizing stakeholder consultations, and conducting performance audits to review program targets. Currently, 62 Central Ministries/Departments and 35 State/UTs have established Gender Budget Cells.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development provides capacity building and technical support to central ministries, departments, states, and UTs to advance their gender budgeting processes. Financial support is also provided to training institutes to conduct gender budgeting training programs for government officials. Implementation and monitoring of gender budget provisions are the responsibility of individual ministries/departments/UTs, either directly or through implementing agencies.
Progress monitoring occurs through the Output-Outcome Monitoring Framework (OOMF), which includes gender-related indicators for some schemes, and through national sample surveys such as the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance issues an annual Budget Circular mandating all ministries/departments to report allocations for women and girls in the prescribed Gender Budget Statement format.
For FY 2026-27, 53 central government Ministries/Departments and 5 UTs reported allocations, compared to 49 Ministries/Departments and 5 UTs in FY 2025-26, indicating expanded participation in the gender budgeting process.