Budgeting for gender equity-towards mainstreaming of gender in the department of telecommunications

Abstract

Macro-economic theories and macro-economic policies in general and fiscal policies in particular are seldom gender-neutral. Studies indicate men generally own, control and use resources in much higher proportion compared to women, which is because of various socio-cultural barriers for women. If the policies and public budgeting do not take cognizance of gender concerns, the gender inequities in the social-cultural institutional set-up get translated into gender iniquitous development. Hence the gender neutrality of policies does not necessarily produce gender equitable outcomes. Feminist economists have strongly advocated the democratisation of macro-economic policies and budgetary processes to correct the gender imbalances which permeates all spheres; political, economic and socio-cultural. Since the Beijing Conference in 1995,'Gender Mainstreaming' has emerged as an important policy approach to address the concerns of gender inequities through mainstreaming gender in policies and budgetary processes. The present study focuses on the gender mainstreaming in the department of Telecommunications of Government of India. Telecommunications is generally perceived to be gender-neutral sector, where mainstreaming gender is difficult due to the' non-rival' nature of services provided in the sector. The Research sets out with the premise as established through various studies, that there are issues of gender inequities in the sector, which require to be addressed through a gender mainstreaming approach. The Study in this regard makes an attempt to incorporate organisational behavioural perspective with gender mainstreaming by exploring the key elements, identifiedas(i)Leadership,(ii)Institutionalpractices,(iii)Finance(iv)IncentiveslDisincentives and(v)External pressure which influence 'change' in an organisational set-up. Gender mainstreaming as a strategy and process for achieving gender equality involve change in climate of gender neutrality to that of gender responsiveness in an organisational set-up. Hence study is undertaken to explore the role of these key elements in influencing gender main streaming in the organisational context of DoT. The Research primarily relies on the secondary reports such as Annual Reports of various Ministries/departments, departmental records of DoTs, budget documents, supplemented by a basic survey on awareness of the employees of DoT. The Research makes a 'Force-field' analysis of the key elements to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses in influencing gender mainstreaming in DoT. On the basis of findings, the Research, makes policy recommendations for the effective main streaming in DoT in the concluding chapter