Nupi Marup bays for gender budget
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 12 2014 : Taking the opportunity provided by the ongoing Assembly session, the All Manipur Nupi Marup has asked the State Government to introduce gender budget in the State.

Speaking to media persons at Irabot Bhavan today, All Manipur Nupi Marup acting president M Sakhi said that gender budget is essential in order to elevate socio- economic position of women and check crimes against women.

At the national level, gender budget was introduced in 2005-06.At that time, the total budget estimate was Rs 94,379 crore.

This was raised to Rs 97,134 crore in 2013-14.Gender budget estimate for the current financial year is Rs 97,533 crore.

After gender budget was introduced at the national level, many such States like Karna-taka, Bihar, Kerala, Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Tripura have introduced gender budgets in their respective States.

The State of Tripura earmarked Rs 337.45 crore for socio-economic elevation of women in their annual budget for 2012-13.The Government of Tripura has been working to check violence against women and punish the perpetrators according to law.

Moreover, the Government of Tripura set aside certain amounts of fund for rehabilitation and re-integration of victims of crimes against women.

The neighbouring State of Nagaland started working on gender budget since 2009 though it is yet to be materialised, Sakhi said.

Gender budget is very important for improvement of women's living conditions encompassing several sectors like education, health, social justice etc, and also for prompt delivery of justice and rehabilitation of victims of crimes against women.

Justice delivery and socio-economic elevation of wom- en would remain an illusion until and unless there is gender budget.

Of all the crimes recorded in recent years in Manipur, almost 65 per cent were crimes against women.

In majority of these crimes against women, police could not submit charge sheets in time.

Whereas Nagaland Police are able to submit charge sheets for all the criminal cases reported in their State, Manipur Police could submit charge sheets of only around 60 per cent of all the crimes committed in the State, Sakhi claimed.

In Tripura, gender budget has been introduced in 17 Government departments.

Likewise, certain percentage of funds allocated to different departments of Manipur Government should be set aside for gender related activities/problems, she demanded.

The demand for gender budget should be tabled and deliberated during the ongoing Assembly session.

Pointing out that there are two lady MLAs and one lady Minister, Sakhi maintained that the women MLAs should take pro-active roles in ensuring that gender budget is introduced in the State.

She also appealed to all the MLAs to take part in the debate over gender budget.

All Manipur Nupi Marup president S Sorojini questioned the recent National Crime Record Bureau report which said that crime rate against women and children in Manipur was declining.

There is little to expect from the new NDA Government with regard to women's welfare.

Noting that just Rs 100 crore was earmarked for the country's girl children in the Union Budget presented in Lok Sabha a few days back, Sorojini questioned what welfare programmes can be initiated with the paltry amount.

However, the Government of West Bengal earmarked Rs 1000 crore for socio-economic elevation of women in their State.

Manipur too should introduce gender budget and set aside adequate amount for the welfare of women.

In case the State Government fails to introduce gender budget during the ongoing budget session, the All Manipur Nupi Marup would be constrained to launch all kinds of agitation in a sustained manner, Sorojini added.

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