28% of Jharkhand budget set aside for gender, child schemes

Ranchi: Finance minister Radha Krishana Kishore on Tuesday tabled the state budget for 2026–27, allocating Rs 45,004.43 crore towards gender and child-focused initiatives — accounting for 28.38% of the total outlay of Rs 1,58,560 crore.

Of this, Rs 10,793.16 crore has been earmarked under the child budget, prepared on the basis of 138 child-related schemes. The allocation marks an increase of around 15% compared to Rs 9,411 crore provided in 2025–26.


Kishore said, “The objective behind setting up a child budget is to make efforts for the proper development of children and to provide necessary support for the implementation of child-related schemes in the state.”

The gender budget for 2026–27 stands at Rs 34,211.27 crore, covering 232 women-focused schemes across 17 state departments.

The govt has announced the launch of the Mahila Kisan Khushhali Yojna with an allocation of Rs 25 crore. The scheme aims to link women farmers with integrated farming practices, provide updated technological support and connect them to online and offline marketing platforms. The budget also proposes an overall expenditure of around Rs 70 crore towards women farmers’ empowerment during the financial year.

To promote self-reliance among women, products made by sakhi mandals will continue to be marketed through Palash Mart, for which Rs 66 crore has been allocated.

The department of women, child development and social security has received Rs 22,995.69 crore. The Mukhyamantri Maiyya Samman Yojna, which provides Rs 2,500 per month to women aged 18–50 years, has been allocated Rs 14,065.57 crore — over Rs 700 crore higher than the previous year.

To tackle malnutrition, Rs 829.99 crore has been earmarked to provide nutritional supplements to 2.6 lakh pregnant and lactating women and 21.34 lakh children below six years of age.

The budget also allocated Rs 176 crore for the construction of 1,100 new anganwadi centres. Additionally, Rs 260.17 crore has been set aside to provide uniforms, sweaters and educational materials to 10.76 lakh children aged 3–5 years enrolled in these centres.

A further Rs 41.26 crore has been allocated to provide nutritional supplements to adolescent girls aged 14–18 years to prevent malnutrition and anaemia. The govt has also announced plans to install mammography machines in all 24 district sadar hospitals to facilitate early detection of breast cancer.