Experts discuss gender inclusive development

PATNA: International Growth Centre (IGC)-India in collaboration with the

Asian Development Research Institute

(ADRI) and Women Development Corporation (WDC) organised a daylong workshop on ‘Strengthening State Effectiveness For Gender Inclusive Development’ here on Friday.

The conference was organised to celebrate 15 years of adoption of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in India and its strengthening. Key government participants in the event included N Vijaya Lakshmi, managing director, WDC, principal accountant general Nilotpal Goswami and principal secretary, labour resource development, Dipak Kumar Singh.

Speaking on the occasion, Ashok K Lahiri, member of the 15th Finance Commission and former chief economic adviser focussed on achievements of GRB and the way forward. “GRB has sustained for 15 years but there is scope for improvement in fiscal marksmanship. There needs to be much more focus on the best public finance management practices spanning the entire budget cycle from preparation, allocation, prioritisation, execution, monitoring and evaluation,” Lahiri said.

Delivering the IGC India 10th anniversary distinguished lecture, Prof Bina Agarwal from University of Manchester discussed the potential of group-farming based on her fieldwork in Kerala and Telengana. “My research shows that group-farming can benefit women farmers, but groups alone cannot overcome major gender disadvantages such as lack of land ownership. For this, tenancy reform is needed, as is government land transfers to women and support to them for accessing their claims in family land,” she said.

Making closing remarks for the inaugural session Pronab Sen, country director, IGC-India pointed out that demand related to GRB should ideally come from the state governments. “In order to adopt best practices in GRB, proper institutions are needed at the state-level,” he said.

Professor Gita Sen from Public Health Foundation of India delivered the distinguished lecture titled ‘Pathways To Gender Equality in India: A Long And Winding Road?’

Yamini Mishra from Amnesty International and Shrijna Dixon, an independent researcher presented their ongoing IGC research on GRB in Bihar, which involves looking at the key GRB processes and mechanisms institutionalised by the state government here.

The second half comprised two panel discussions: ‘Equality and Empowerment’ and ‘GRB: Evidence and Good Practices’. The event concluded with an IGC special lecture by Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay from KIT Royal Tropical Institute, Netherlands on ‘Gender Mainstreaming Futures: What Two Decades Of Experience Is Telling Us’, chaired by Jeevika chief executive officer Balamurugan D.