Minister of State for Women & Child Development, Smt Krishna Raj has conveyed that Government of India has set up a dedicated fund called Nirbhaya Fund for implementation of initiatives aimed at enhancing the safety and security of women in the country. As per the guidelines of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal authority for appraisal of the schemes/proposals received under Nirbhaya Fund. Also, Ministry of Finance has set up an Empowered Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development for appraising and approving various schemes/project proposals proposed to be funded from the Nirbhaya Fund. The concerned Ministries take up the sanction and implementation of the schemes/proposals so appraised as they do for their other schemes/projects.
Nirbhaya Fund was set up with a corpus of Rs. 1000 Cr. during 2013-14. Further, an amount of Rs 1000 Cr. was provided in 2014-15 and for the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18, an amount of Rs. 550 cr. (each financial year) was provided under the Nirbhaya Fund. The corpus transferred to the Public Account for the Nirbhaya fund upto 2017-18 is Rs. 3100 Cr.
Under the Nirbhaya fund, 22 proposals on women’s safety and security from Central Ministries and State Governments amounting to Rs.2209.19 Crores have been appraised and recommended by the Empowered Committee as on 21.07.2017. The proposals of different Government Ministries/Organization, appraised and recommended so far by the Empowered Committee are at different stages of implementation. The list of these projects is given below:
(Rs. in Crore)
| S.No. | Name of the proposal and Ministry/ Department | Cost of Proposal |
| 1. | Emergency Response Support System, MHA | 321.69
|
| 2. | Creation of Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF), MHA | 200.00
|
| 3. | Creation of Investigative Units for Crime against Women (IUCAW), MHA | 324.00
|
| 4. | Organized Crime Investigative Agency (OCIA), MHA | 83.20
|
| 5. | Cyber Crime Prevention against Women & Children (CCPWC), MHA | 195.83
|
| 6. | Proposal for providing facility of Social Workers/Counsellors at the District and Sub- Divisional Police Station Level in Delhi, Delhi Police/MHA | 5.07
|
| 7. | New building with women centric facilities for Special Unit for Women & Children (SPUWAC) and Special Unit for North East Region (SPUNER) at Nanakpura, Delhi Police/MHA | 23.53
|
| 8. | Integrated Emergency Response Management System (IEMRS), Ministry of Railways | 500.00
|
| 9. | Development & Field Testing of panic Switch based safety Device for Cars and Buses for aiding Women’s Safety, MeiTY | 3.50 |
| 10. | Abhaya Project Proposal for safety of women and girl child, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh | 138.49
|
| 11. | Chirali Proposal, Women Empowerment Directorate, Govt. of Rajasthan | 10.20
|
| 12. | One Stop Centre, MWCD | 119.69
|
| 13. | Universalisation of Women Helpline, MWCD | 69.49
|
| 14. | Proposal on implementation of Mahila Police Volunteers Scheme in two districts, namely, Karnal and Mahendragarh, Govt. of Haryana | 1.29 |
| 15. | Proposal on implementation of Mahila Police Volunteers Scheme in two districts, namely, Anantapur and Kadapa, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh | 2.25 |
| 16. | Proposal on implementation of Mahila Police Volunteers Scheme in two districts, namely, Surat and Ahmedabad, Govt. of Gujarat | 1.27 |
| 17. | Capacity Building at Village/ District/ State level for reducing violence against women, Govt. of Uttarakhand | 0.72 |
| 18. | Training women for heavy passengers vehicles, Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation, Govt. of Karnataka | 10.54 |
| 19. | Smart and safe cities free from violence against women and girls’ programme, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh | 1.74 |
| 20. | Safe city project, Govt. of Odisha | 110.35 |
| 21. | Installation of CCTVs in buses, UPSRTC, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh | 83.5 |
| 22. | Nirbhaya Shelter Home, Govt. of Nirbhaya Fund | 2.84 |
| Total | 2209.19 |
Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing three schemes under Nirbhaya Fund, namely, One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline(WHL) and Mahila Police Volunteer. One Stop Centres have been set up to facilitate access to an integrated range of services including medical, legal, and psychological support to women affected by violence to be funded through Nirbhaya Fund. The One Stop Centres will be integrated with 181 and other existing helplines. So far, 151 One Stop Centres have become operational. The Scheme of Universalisation of Women Helpline is intended to provide 24 hours immediate and emergency response to women affected by violence through referral and information about women related government schemes programs across the country through a single uniform number. The MWCD in collaboration with MHA has envisaged engagement of Mahila Police Volunteers in State/UTs who will act as a link between Police and Community and facilitate women in distress.
The Empowered Committee of Officers, under the chairmanship of Secretary, WCD, which is an inter-ministerial committee appraises and recommends various proposals/projects proposed by different Ministries/Departments/States. The concerned Ministries then take up the sanction and implementation of the schemes/proposals so appraised as they do for their other schemes/projects. This Committee regularly reviews the implementation of the projects and try to ensure judicious utilization of funds from time to time with the concerned Ministries. Furthermore, the Ministries and State Governments have been requested on 10th April, 2017 and reminded on 1st August, 2017 to send innovative proposals that can enhance the security and safety of women.
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