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| Photo Credit: BALACHANDAR L
Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Union Budget 2024-25 carried an allocation of more than Rs 3 lakh crore for schemes benefitting women and girls and promoting women-led development, during her presentation of the Budget in the Lok Sabha on July 23. This is Ms. Sitharaman’s record seventh time making a budget speech. It also the first Budget presented by the third NDA government after winning the Lok Sabha elections.
Also Read : Click here for the Union Budget 2024 updates, highlights
Ms. Sitharaman said that the budgetary allocation signalled the government’s commitment to enhancing women‘s role in economic development.
To encourage participation of women in the workforce, the government will tie up with industry to set up working women hostels as well as creche-facilities, she said. Further, this industry-government partnership is also expected to launch women-specific skilling programmes and promote market access to women-led SHG enterprises.
As far as social justice is concerned, the government proposes adopting a saturation approach to cover all eligible people through various schemes, including those for health and education. The end goal is to achieve inclusive human resource development, one of the core priorities of the Union Budget 2024-25.
Ms. Sitharaman said, “Our government is committed to all-round, all-pervasive and all-inclusive development of people, particularly farmers, youth, women and the poor.” She highligfhted that implementation of schemes meant for supporting economic activities by craftsmen, artisans, SHGs, SC/ST and women entrepreneurs and street vendors, such as PM Vishwakarma, PM SVAnidhi, NRLM and Stand-UP India will be stepped up.
Also Read: Budget 2024 Highlights
Under urban development, the government has ecouraged the moderation of high stamp duty by all States for urban-related devlopment. It has asked for a further lowering of dutues for properties purchased by women.