Patna: The state govt will shift the focus of gender budgeting from earmarking funds for women to measuring how effectively govt schemes improve the lives of women and girls, senior officials said at a state-level workshop in Patna on Wednesday.The Women and Child Development Corporation under the social welfare department organised a review-cum-sensitisation workshop on gender-responsive budgeting in Patna on Wednesday, where officials stressed the need to integrate a gender perspective at every stage, from scheme formulation and budget allocation to implementation and outcome assessment.Presiding over the workshop, planning and development department additional chief secretary N Vijayalakshmi said gender budgeting should be linked to women’s overall empowerment and inclusive development. She emphasised that economic participation, employment and entrepreneurship should receive equal attention alongside welfare measures.Vijayalakshmi also highlighted the need to account for women’s unpaid work within households while assessing their contribution to the economy and society. Officials said plans prepared at district and block levels should reflect women’s specific needs and challenges.Finance Department secretary (expenditure) Rachna Patil said the success of a scheme should be judged not by the amount spent but by the actual change it brings to the lives of women and girls.Women and Child Development Corporation managing director Inayat Khan called for maintaining separate data on male and female beneficiaries across schemes, saying gender-segregated data would help assess outcomes more effectively and strengthen planning.Manoj Kumar, director of the Statistics Bureau under the Union ministry of women and child development, said gender budget cells should be strengthened and gender-responsive budgeting integrated into routine departmental planning.The workshop also discussed outcome-based budgeting, Sustainable Development Goals and the integration of gender budgeting with decentralised planning.
