1st Modi 3.0 Budget Promises Hostels For Working Women & Creches To Ease Workforce Participation 

For promoting women-led development, the Budget carries an allocation of more than Rs 3 lakh crore for schemes benefitting women and girls, FM Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Women constitute one of the four major ‘castes’ the Modi govt seeks to focus on. Representational image.

Source : PTI

Union Budget 2024-25: Initiatives to boost women’s participation in the workforce – including setting up child-care facilities – were among the highlights of the Union Budget 2024-25, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.

Sitharaman said the government will facilitate “higher participation of women in the workforce through setting up of working women hostels in collaboration with industry, and establishing creches”. 

“In addition, the partnership will seek to organise women-specific skilling programmes, and promotion of market access for women SHG (self-help group) enterprises,” she added. 

Sitharaman is the first woman to hold the finance portfolio full-time. The only other woman to have served as finance minister is Indira Gandhi, who handled the portfolio alongside her role as Prime Minister.

In her speech, Sitharaman sought to reiterate the Modi government’s commitment to women empowerment, noting that they constituted one of the four major ‘castes’ the administration seeks to focus on (the others are youths, farmers and the poor). 

For promoting women-led development, she said, “the Budget carries an allocation of more than Rs 3 lakh crore for schemes benefitting women and girls”.

“This signals our government’s commitment for enhancing women’s role in economic development,” she added, saying the government will also “consider further lowering duties for properties purchased by women”. 

In the interim budget for 2024-25, presented in February, Sitharaman had said the “empowerment of women through entrepreneurship, ease of living, and dignity… has gained momentum” in the 10 years of the Modi government.

Push For Women 

The Economic Survey 2023-2024, released on Monday, noted that increased access to education and skill development among women as well as other initiatives for their empowerment had elevated their participation in the nation’s development and progress. 

With “rural India driving the trend”, the female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) had risen to 37% in 2022-2023, from 23.3% in 2017-2018, it said.

Of the 52.3 crore bank accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) – which aims to boost financial inclusion – 55.6% of the beneficiaries were women as of May 2024, it added.

As much as 68% of the loans sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) – for financial assistance to non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises – was to women, it said, adding that 77.7% of the beneficiaries under Stand-Up India were women as well (both figures as of May 2024). 

As of July 2023, it noted, more than 53% of the Prime Minister’s Rural Digital Literacy Campaign (PMGDISHA) beneficiaries were women.