The Maha Picture | Maharashtra Gender Budget 2025-26: A Step Towards Equality Or Mere Symbolic Announcements?
While the budget appears promising on paper, Maharashtra’s past record in effective implementation of gender-based schemes raises concerns.
Maharashtra’s Gender Budget 2025-26 has been presented with a clear emphasis on women’s safety, healthcare, education, and economic empowerment. The state government has increased allocations for women-centric schemes, aiming to boost female entrepreneurship, improve healthcare services, and enhance security measures. Special focus has been given to women’s skill development, financial inclusion, and social security programmes. However, while the budget appears promising on paper, Maharashtra’s past record in effective implementation of gender-based schemes raises concerns. Many initiatives have suffered due to underutilisation of funds and bureaucratic delays, leaving women, especially in rural and marginalised communities, struggling to access the benefits promised to them.
One of the most significant provisions in this year’s budget is the expansion of women’s self-help groups (SHGs) and entrepreneurship programmes, with increased financial support under Mahalakshmi Yojana and Mudra Yojana. The government has also promised greater access to credit and business incentives for women entrepreneurs, particularly in agriculture, small businesses, and urban start-ups. Additionally, new provisions have been made to enhance skilling programmes, ensuring women receive industry-relevant training to enter the workforce. However, past experiences suggest that many of these initiatives remain concentrated in urban areas, leaving rural women with limited awareness and access to such schemes. The success of these provisions will depend on how well the government ensures rural outreach and overcomes bureaucratic challenges in loan disbursement and skilling programmes.
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Healthcare remains another major focus area, with increased funds allocated for maternal and child health programmes, menstrual hygiene awareness, and nutrition schemes under Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana and Poshan Abhiyan. The government has committed to strengthening public healthcare infrastructure, particularly in rural Maharashtra, to ensure that women receive quality medical services. While these measures are essential, the state continues to face a severe shortage of doctors and healthcare workers in rural districts, making it difficult for women in these areas to access timely medical assistance. Additionally, while sanitary pad distribution programmes have been expanded, the taboo around menstrual health still prevents many young girls from utilising these facilities. Without community-driven awareness initiatives, such schemes may not achieve their intended impact.
Despite its progressive allocations, Maharashtra’s Gender Budget 2025-26 has key gaps that need urgent attention. Issues such as gendered impact of climate change on women in agriculture, welfare provisions for transgender individuals, and robust fund utilisation mechanisms remain largely absent. Rural women, especially those dependent on agriculture, are at the frontline of climate change challenges, yet the budget lacks gender-sensitive climate policies that could help them build resilience. Additionally, Maharashtra has seen a rise in crimes against women, yet questions remain on whether the increased funding for safety measures like One-Stop Centres and police response teams will be effectively implemented. Without strict accountability mechanisms and real-time monitoring, many of these schemes could suffer the fate of previous programmes – good on paper, but ineffective in execution. The real test of this gender budget will not be its numbers, but its real-world impact on Maharashtra’s women.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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