Thirty-three years after the 74th Constitutional Amendment promised women a seat at the table in urban local governance, the reality on the ground tells a different story. India has made strides in women's political representation in Urban Local Governments, with 46 per cent of councillors being women, yet this has not improved how women experience our cities. Evidence suggests that barriers such as unsafe mobility, inadequate infrastructure and unpaid care burdens continue to limit women's participation in urban labour markets. In India, urban female labour force participation stagnates at a dismal 25 per cent, trailing far behind the 38.2 per cent seen in rural areas, according to the latest PLFS. Representation alone is not enough. Cities must enforce Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and hardwire gender equity into urban governance by applying a gender lens across the entire public finance lifecycle: from pre-budget planning and revamping accounting codes and public procurement to support women entrepreneurs, to rigorous outcome audits for accountability. With ₹3.56 lakh crore flowing in from the 16th Finance Commission, cities should move past piecemeal fixes and actively dismantle barriers through gender-responsive spending that truly empowers women economically and socially.
Missing link in gender budgeting in city govts
India institutionalised Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in the mid-2000s, and it is now practised at both the Union and state levels. As of 2025–26, 49 Union ministries and departments report gender budget allocations (Bhuta, 2025), while 14 state governments have adopted GRB frameworks (Nikore et al., WLEC 2022). These are primarily reflected through the Gender Budget Statement (GBS), the country’s most institutionalised gender budgeting mechanism. However, the framework remains limited. Major expenditure heads still sit partly or entirely outside its scope, and gender tagging remains largely ex post, undertaken after schemes and allocations are finalised, rather than integrating women’s priorities into the initial design and planning stages of budgets.
While Union and state governments have made some progress in gender budgeting, at the city level, gender budgeting remains largely absent. As a result, major spending that matters most for women’s lived experiences in cities, including transport, sanitation, lighting, markets, footpaths and other everyday urban services, often escapes meaningful gender analysis, despite directly shaping women’s mobility, safety, livelihoods and dignity. Gender responsiveness in city budgets is frequently piecemeal, limited to measures such as the installation of a few CCTV cameras or the distribution of scooters to a small number of beneficiaries. While visible, such interventions are not the same as systematically identifying women’s needs in streets, buses, markets, and public spaces and embedding those priorities into municipal budgets.
A strong example comes from Chennai, where the Greater Chennai Corporation’s Gender and Policy Lab translated evidence on women’s safety and mobility barriers into budgeted municipal interventions. In its first year, the initiative contributed to the installation of 65 streetlights, the sanctioning of 425 more across 152 locations, and investments in safer bus stops, pedestrian pathways, and public toilets. The model is important because it integrated women’s lived experiences directly into municipal planning and budgeting processes.
Cities now need to institutionalise ex-ante gender budgeting by integrating women’s priorities into budgets before they are approved, rather than treating gender budgeting as a post-facto reporting exercise. Ward-level consultations should identify women’s concerns, and municipal departments should demonstrate how mainstream expenditure heads respond to them. This also requires stronger legal and institutional backing, since gender budgeting in India still relies largely on executive orders, leading to uneven implementation. A clearer statutory mandate could help embed gender priorities more firmly within municipal finance systems.
Cities also need stronger accounting systems. Urban Local Governments (ULGs) need to modify expenditure coding structures to enable gender tagging across departments and wards within existing accounting architecture. Revision of the National Municipal Accounting Manual (NMAM) by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) provides an opportunity to include this framework. This would function like a GPS tracker, allowing governments to verify whether gender-tagged spending is reaching its intended purpose. This will also make gender budgeting more transparent.
While budgeting will lead to more money for women, the devil lies in implementation.
The next missing piece is audit. Gender budgeting becomes meaningful only when spending is reviewed for outcomes, not just compliance. Performance audits and expenditure tracking should assess whether public spending has improved women’s safety, reduced unpaid care burdens, and expanded access to work and services. Indian public finance scholars have long argued that gender budgeting must be linked to outcomes, performance budgets, and stronger gender-sensitive public audits.
Public procurement must also be part of this shift. Women should be seen not only as beneficiaries of city spending but also as suppliers, contractors and entrepreneurs within urban economies. Gender-sensitive procurement can encourage participation from women-owned enterprises and self-help groups while tracking how much procurement value flows to them.
A turning point for cities
Gender responsiveness in cities has become more urgent because Urban Local Governments (ULGs) are set to receive a large increase in funding. The 16th Finance Commission has recommended ₹3.56 lakh crore in grants to ULGs for 2026-31, a 2.3-fold increase from the 15th Finance Commission period. If cities spend this money through a piecemeal approach, they will waste a historic opportunity to empower over 18 crore women in rapidly urbanising India. If they use it with ex-ante gender analysis, gender-responsive accounting practices, inclusive procurement, and stronger audits, local budgets can become one of India’s most powerful instruments for women’s empowerment.
Bhanita Boro and Nandhikeswari Ramaraju are fellows, Women in Public Finance at Janaagraha.
