Even though the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is still far from providing enough basic facilities to women, for the first time, the civic body is planning in the direction of creating a gender-based budget, which will give focus on the basic needs and requirements of women. A discussion on "Gender Budget," which means special allocations in the budget, keeping in mind the requirements of women, took place in PMC on Tuesday. PMC and Drishti Stree Adhyayan Prabodhan Kendra had jointly organised the discussion, in which a few women corporators also took part. In her opening remarks, mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale said, “Women who actively participate in the politics should first of all notice the problems faced by women as a community. There is a need to create facilities for women, as basic as public toilets. In order to give support to women psychologically, who have to cope with pressures, special help centers should be set up. Libraries, clubs, sports complexes dedicated for women are the need of the hour. And therefore, allotment of funds for these purposes should be done in the annual budget of the PMC.” “Woman is the nucleus of the family. Hence, women deserve special attention, not only in the municipal budgets, but also in the budget of the state and the country,” said Anjali Deshpande of secretary of Drishti Stree Adhyayan Prabodhan Kendra. Explaining the concept of the gender budget, Suvarna Gokhale said, “Gender budget, which is also called ‘women’s budget’ is not a separate budget either for men or women. Instead, it is a tool to achieve gender equality in the society. It intends to do the bring gender sensitivities and policy changes.” She added, “Gender budget was first carried out in Australia in 1984 and the concept was first discussed in India in December 2003 and was accepted in 2004-05.” She said that women had to face a number of small and big problems in the society and therefore, some small initiatives including special bus service for women, special ticket reservation counters, a hostel for working-women, crèches, should be undertaken. Mayor decided to convene special meetings with the women corporators to discuss what needs to be done.
