An Integrated Gender Data Policy: A Case for Plugging Gender Data Gaps and Revamping Gender Statistics in India

Published date01 March 2022
AuthorAnand Trivedi
DOI10.1177/00195561211058409
Date01 March 2022
Subject MatterNotes
An Integrated Gender
Data Policy: A Case for
Plugging Gender Data
Gaps and Revamping
Gender Statistics in India
Anand Trivedi1
Introduction
Despite consistent increase in the size of India’s Gender Budget, signicant gaps
in the existence of Sex-Disaggregated Data (SDD) within our statistical system
impair policymakers’ ability to effectively navigate towards improved gender
outcomes. This article analyses the institutional architecture behind the generation
of SDD and delves deeper into the major gender data gaps as they exist in the
large-scale surveys conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation and other line ministries as well as the administrative data systems
maintained by them. Based on this analysis, the article attempts to lay down the
broad contours of the much-needed gender data policy in India along with a
proposed mix of carrot-and-stick policy implementation solutions.
Context
India’s Gender Budget has almost doubled at a Compound Annual Growth Rate
(CAGR) of 10.4% from $10.84 billion in FY 2015–2016 (Ministry of Finance,
Government of India, 2016) to $19.62 billion in FY 2020–2021 (Ministry of
Finance, 2020a). Contrastingly, global gender indices based on macro-level indi-
cators suggest little improvement in gender outcomes despite incorporating
lagging effects of expenditure. India ranked 123rd of 162 nations on the Gender
Inequality Index (GII) (UNDP, 2020) in UNDP’s Human Development Report
2020, showing no improvement since 2018. On the World Economic Forum’s
Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) (World Economic Forum, 2020), India slipped
Note
1 Development Monitoring & Evaluation Off‌ice (DMEO), NITI Aayog, Government of India, New
Delhi, India.
Corresponding author:
Anand Trivedi, Development Monitoring & Evaluation Off‌ice (DMEO), NITI Aayog, Government of
India, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001, India.
E-mail: anand.trivedi@nic.in
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
68(1) 116–122, 2022
© 2022 IIPA
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DOI: 10.1177/00195561211058409
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