REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON GENDER REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON GENDER BUDGETINGBUDGETING

Organized byOrganized by Department of Women and Child Development-GOIDepartment of Women and Child Development-GOI

In Collaboration withIn Collaboration with

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) And And

Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA)Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA)New Delhi, New Delhi,

23-24, November 200523-24, November 2005

Building Budgets from BelowBuilding Budgets from Belowpresentation bypresentation by

Ahalya S Bhat, SSF Ahalya S Bhat, SSF on theon the

Methodology and Tool Developed in Karnataka to Enable Women in Methodology and Tool Developed in Karnataka to Enable Women in Local Government to Design Fiscal PolicyLocal Government to Design Fiscal Policy

Presentation shows the STEPS required to ensure an outcome out of a process.

It emphasizes the importance of process in generating outcome

The following slides represent • Process used• Value of partnership• Adoption of other methodologies• Merging of methodologies to generate outcome

Prelude

Women at the grassroots, have always and world wide shown their capacity to design,build and manage development .

However , women’s participation in governance including budget matters, education, employment , etc has not materialized

Yet in India there has been recognition of the need to include women in governance for many decades

Background

Contd….

Review of Government initiativesReview of Government initiatives

First Women's Association with village panchayatby Balwant Rai Mehta Committee in 1957

First Women's Association with village panchayatby Balwant Rai Mehta Committee in 1957

1983 Karnataka introduced reservation of 25% of seats1983 Karnataka introduced reservation of 25% of seats

73rd & 74th amendments 1993, was the next major stepwhich provides 1/3rd reservation for women

73rd & 74th amendments 1993, was the next major stepwhich provides 1/3rd reservation for women

Singamma Sreenivasan FoundationSingamma Sreenivasan Foundation-A profile-A profileSSF is a public charitable trust dedicated towards the empowerment of women and conservation of nature.

Objectives:Objectives:To facilitate the advancement of women To improve their conditions of living and employment . To document and disseminate information related to women.Few activities undertakenFew activities undertaken

Strengthening Women’s participation in District Level Governance Creating infrastructure facilities for training rural women in growing and processing of medicinal plants Human Rights Education Evaluation of schemes for Women in Karnataka

Need to link Economic Governance to Political Governance

With federation formed there was a need to develop technical skills.

Need of the hour – Empowerment of women in Economic Governance

`Building Budgets from Below’ was built on the foundation (Women federation) that was already laid by SSF

Federation members expressing their views

Aim of the Foundation

Enabling the women from Grassroot level

to develop plan and Building Budgets from Below

in local self government with women’s leadership

Building Budgets From BelowBuilding Budgets From Below

Objectives

1. Linking economic governance to political governance.

2. Examining and analyzing the budget of both the State

and the Local Governments and helping elected women

to participate in budget preparation.

Project was implemented in 3 phases

Over a period of three years a tool/ a methodology has been evolved in enabling elected women to know and participate in development planning and financing at local level. This process has been in partnership with

•UNIFEM/ European Union•State Government of Karnataka•Janagraha (Citizen's movement committed to increasing citizen participation in local government: the practice of participatory democracy).

Designing a methodology

Steps required to achieve the outcome in summary

Women’s connectivity, Intense process of participation Statistical data/surveys Women’s political will

The experience proved that women elected to local councils whoare never exposed to Budget, Politics/ Education can be agentsof change & can learn techniques and use them.

Sites Location: Federation Sites Location: Federation of womenof women

In Karnataka the federation was formed in 9 districts

The Federations were also formed in 3 southern states –Kerala, Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu

W orkshop to influence theensuing budget

III round of m eetingunderstand relation betw een

revenue & expenditure

II round of m eetingprioritize the problem s &

preparing vision statem ent

I round of m eetingproblem s identification in sites

Im plem enting Janaagraha technique

Dem ystify the budget

Data collectionPrim ary & Secondary

Quantita ive & qualitative

Selection of sites

W om en to be organised by collective

Outline of nine steps

The process required 9 Steps to enable the outcome

The First Brick- Women to be organised in a collective. Usually this is done by women’s organisations.

This was undertaken by SSF through a project “Associating Women in Local Self Government”

SSF formed association of 684 Elected members of panchayats in Karnataka in 9 districts during 2000- 2005

On a common platform

Out of these 9 districts where women had formed federations, SSF choose 2 GPs and 2 Urban areas for enabling women’s participation in economic governance

Step II- sites selection

1. Honaganahalli Gram Panchayat in Bijapur district.

2. Kogali Gram Panchayat in Bellary district.

3. Udupi City Municipal Council & Tumkur City Municipal Council.

4. Mysore City Corporation In Phase II and Phase

III – Tumkur was selected in place of Udupi

Step III – Data Collection

Two levels of data collection was doneQuantitative data:

Collecting state level budgetary allocations & of selected sites i.e. Secondary Data

Primary data collection in the selected sites Socio-economic profiles of EWRsSocio-economic profiles of SitesWorking of Public distribution systemsAvailability of health servicesMAPS showing the resources available

Qualitative information on their knowledge of budgets was collected from EWRs through check list

EWRs, women folk participating in the deliberation

Step IV - Demystify the budget

Enabled EWRs to demystify the budget by presenting the data to them through participatory mock sessions 1. Engaging women in number of meetings used to

understand the area and develop a Budget as they would like to see

it i.e., the “Ought” Budget

2. Presenting them the actual budget and the ought budget and letting them understand the gap between the Actual Budget and Ought Budget

3. Through this process the women were enabled to understand –

• What was a Budget• How Budget was prepared• How to influence the Budget

Findings :

Awareness : Women were kept in dark

Perception : Lack of knowledge in governance

Participation : Very minimal and opportunity was not given

No System to impart knowledge to elected representatives. No linkage between Actual Budget and the `Ought Budget’ prepared by women Given an opportunity with training, women are capable of participating in the budget process.

Bridging the Gap – Between Logistics and execution to bring measurable outcome

• Problems were identified

• Data collected and analysis was done

• Lacked technique/Methodology to solve the problem

• There was need for intervention to bridge this gap

In this backdrop Janaagraha joined hands with SSF

SSF adopted the technique of Janaagraha

In order to bridge the gap..

• Collecting data on revenue & expenditure• Community participation/ participatory democracy• Citizens engage with the government as communities and not as individuals• Bringing awareness to the citizens• Having three cornered meeting

SSF adopted this technique in the GPs and Municipalities to achieve the outcome

In case of Janaagraha it is limited to urban body and with citizen represented by ward committee in the city

Step V- Site Interventions

The technique of Janaagraha was implemented .

The stakeholders i.e, SHG members, EWRs, Bureaucrats, Decision Makers, other NGOs participated.

Focus on identifying critical issues, find suitable solutions and arrive at financial requirements.

Women lobby was formed to influence the budget

25 round of meetings were held

Women participating in the meeting & learning about the budget process

Meetings/DeliberationsStep VI Round I

Discussions with EWRs, SHG members, local women folk & decision makers. Providing platform for involvement of women Identification of problems in the sites

Step VIIRound II

Women identified and prioritized problems , recommended solutions to authorities in GP & wards Prepared `vision document’ for ward /GP which enabled EWRs to allocate in the ensuing budget The concerned corporators, Presidents accepted accountability.

Step VIIIRound III

Ensure that the EWRs are aware of the appropriate budget head under which to seek allocation Enable EWRs to identify the streams of revenue in their area Understand the relationship between the available revenue and the required expenditure.

Step IXWorkshop

Organized before the beginning of financial year so EWRs could influence the budget 2005-06.

Positive outcome in 2005-06 Budget

Mysore City Corporation:

- An ad hoc “Women and Child Welfare Committee” to be constituted

- IWDP enhanced- Rs 5-10 lakhs

- To buy sewing machines for women enhanced-Rs 7-10 lakhs

- New head `Nirmala Nagara Yojana’ created with Rs 10000 to each local habitat group

- Number of women self groups increased from 2-4.

00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.9

1

(Rs in million)

Acc RE BE

2003-04 2004-05 2005-06

Expenditure towards Schemes exclusively for Women

(IWDP) (IWWA)

Formation residential association Sewing machines for(EBP)

Training Assistance to PH & LP(Women)

Const of SSS Contribution to girls hostel

Tumkur City Municipal Council:

A separate head for women in the budget earmarking 1% of the total budget to women’s development was introduced

Honaganahalli GP:

Budget was allocated for construction of bus stop in Jumnal village as well as to raise the compound walls of public toilet for women Allocations were made for repairing of toilets for women

Kogali GP:

The EWRs & President of GP assured that suitable allocations would be made for improving the roads, distribution of ration cards, toilets facilities

Contd……

Thank you