Himachal Pradesh has made significant progress in the social and economic upliftment of women in the state, thus making it one of the best-performing states in gender equality.

To further provide the impetus for women’s empowerment, the state government is emphasising gender mainstreaming.

An official spokesperson said here on Sunday that to achieve this objective, the state government has made a provision of the Gender Budget Statement (GBS) in Budget 2022-23.

“The state government is committed towards upliftment of women in state by ensuring gender equity to women facing traditional and social disadvantages by the successful implementation of Gender Budget Statement. Gender Budget Statement is a tool of Gender Responsive Budget which aims to ensure gender equitable distribution of resources,” he said.

The state government with effective implementation of GBS aims to analyse the differential impact of policies, programs, and schemes of state government for women, he said, adding that along with mainstreaming gender, the GBS would ensure optimum budgetary resources for women’s welfare and evaluating the effectiveness of gender-based budgeting.

Gender Budgeting is an exercise to bridge the gender gap and provide equal opportunities to all and the involvement of every department plays a vital role in bridging the gap. To ensure effective implementation of GBS, the Gender Budget Cells (GBC) were constituted in various departments.

Gender Budget Cell is an institutional mechanism that would facilitate the integration of gender analysis into the government budget, to tackle gender imbalances and promote gender equality, he added.

“To initiate an integrated approach and guide the Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) set up by departments, the state government is organising workshops and training through HP Institute of Public Administration, state department of Women and Child Development, and United Nations Women India in partnership with Ministry of Women and Child Development Government of India,” he said.

The vision of the state government to implement GBS would ensure that the requisite funds for the development and upliftment of women and girls are delivered to them, he said, adding that GBS would monitor the financial performance and physical deliverables of various departments and assess whether the money was spent as planned.

The GBS would prove beneficial in assessing the adequacy of budget allocations in effective implementation of the gender-sensitive policies and programs and further enhancing the gender equality situation in Himachal Pradesh, he maintained.