Budget 2026-27 places women at the centre of new enterprise, education and livelihood initiatives
SHE Marts aim to help rural women move from self-help groups to owning businesses
Government promises one girls’ hostel in every district to support women in STEM education
Fisheries, water bodies and rural infrastructure projects seek to link women to local growth
Care work acknowledged indirectly, but gendered burden remains largely unaddressed
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2026-27 tabled in the Parliament on February 1, 2026 has put women at the centre of several new economic and social initiatives, promising support for female entrepreneurs beyond small-scale credit, rural livelihoods and girls’ education as part of a wider push for inclusive growth.
A key announcement in the speech was the creation of Self-Help Entrepreneur (SHE) Marts, aimed at women-led enterprises in rural areas. These marts will function as community-owned retail outlets and will be housed within cluster-level federations of self-help groups.
The proposal builds on the government’s Lakhpati Didi programme, which seeks to enable women in self-help groups to earn at least Rs 1 lakh a year.
The new scheme, the finance minister said, is intended to help women take “the next step” — from credit-led livelihoods to owning and running enterprises.
According to the Budget speech, SHE Marts will be supported through “enhanced and innovative financing instruments”, though detailed funding allocations are yet to be made public.
With safety and distance being the biggest hurdles for women in science and technology, the finance minister announced a landmark infrastructure project for higher education.
To support girl students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, the government will establish one girls' hostel in every district across the country. This initiative is designed to address the challenges of “prolonged hours of study and laboratory work” that often deter women from pursuing advanced scientific research.
The hostels will be supported through viability gap funding or capital assistance, with the aim of improving access, safety and retention of women in higher education institutions, particularly in districts where accommodation options are limited.
Women also feature in the Budget’s rural development and natural resource plans. The finance minister announced initiatives for the integrated development of 500 reservoirs and Amrit Sarovars, with an emphasis on livelihoods linked to water bodies. As part of this, the government said it would strengthen the fisheries value chain in coastal areas and enable market linkages involving start-ups and women-led groups, alongside Fish Farmers Producer Organisations.
The Economic Survey 2025-26, tabled in Parliament on January 29, 2026, had pointed out persistent gender disparities, especially in unpaid and caregiving work. Women continue to bear a dual burden of caregiving and unpaid domestic labour, which may partly explain both their preference for, and concentration in, flexible forms of employment. Despite this, women’s overall participation in the workforce remains low, and their wages continue to be disproportionately lower, it had pointed out.
The budget on February 1 announced a strong care ecosystem covering geriatric and allied care services will be created and in the coming year, 1.5 lakh caregivers will be trained. However, the gendered role of caregiving was not covered in the budget.