The Need for a Framework for Combined Disability and Gender Budgeting

Abstract

Women with disability (WWDs) represent the most vulnerable category in the realms of both disability and gender. A recent survey on government allocations and expenditure in the disability sector in four states in India, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal, has underscored the need to develop specific safety nets for their survival and well-being. In recent years gender budgeting has emerged as an effective tool for locating the gaps between the policy rhetoric on women's empowerment and the resources provided to match it. There is a similar need to develop a disability budgeting protocol and, more importantly, a combined gender and disability budgeting tool to ensure that WWDs are not left out of resource allocations by the state. This study attempts to look at the resource allocation to the disability sector in general. It has to be kept in mind that gender-disaggregated data are not available; therefore, the analysis of the budget on the sector as a whole will be indicative of the situation for the WWDs as well. Using tools of gender budgeting and the baseline data on WWDs in the four states, this article attempts to develop a framework for a composite gender–disability budgeting exercise.