Is India’s gender budget promise only on paper?

Gender budgeting, a strategy to ensure that promises on gender equality show up in public budget allocations as well, was first adopted by India in 2005-06. A host of other countries have also adopted such initiatives. But in India and elsewhere, achieving gender equality has stayed a major challenge. In the Indian context, the budgetary allocations to schemes benefiting women have grown nearly 13% at an annualized rate since inception, but its share in the overall government spends has stayed almost at 5%. Various studies have drawn parallels between gender equality and improved economic efficiency. Can India get its act together? Mint explores: