New Delhi, 16 December 2021: Nine years ago, on this day, 16 December, the country witnessed one of the most heinous crimes meted out to a woman. It was a chilly winter night of 2012, when a girl coming from Balia district of Uttar Pradesh was brutally raped in National Capital. She later succumbed to her injuries. Outraged by the incident, people held protests all across the nation. It led to several initiatives at policy level for safety of women. Creating Nirbhaya Fund was one of them. It was aimed to fund initiatives which would protect women from any kind of violence. Cut to 2021! Ironically, the centre has failed to disburse 34% of Nirbhaya Fund. And what is worst is that the states failed to spend even the disbursed amount completely.
The bitter truth was admitted in Rajya Sabha when Rupa Ganguli, a BJP parliamentarian asked the status of Nirbhaya fund.
Responding to her question, Union Minister of Women and Child Welfare Smriti Zubin Irani admitted that under the Nirbhaya Fund, out of an allocation of Rs.6212.85 crore, a sum of Rs.4138.51 crore had been released by the centre. Out of this released amount, a sum of Rs.2,921.85 crore or ¾ has been reported to be utilized.
So, overall, out of the allocated sum of Rs.6212.85 crore only Rs.2,921.85 crore, which is less than 50 percent of the allocated amount, has been spent towards the goal for which the fund was set up.
Nirbhaya Fund: Lacklustre approach towards women safety, a major goal of SDG
Interestingly, a state like Uttar Pradesh from where the victim came from, has managed to spend only around half of the money allocated to it. It should be highlighted that the state is going for assembly election in January 2022 and is trying to project itself as an example at law-and-order front. When the incumbent state government came to power in 2017, it announced several initiatives like Anti-Romeo Squad for women safety. This was meant to protect women on streets, a similar initiative to what Nirbhaya Fund works for.
Its vision document says, “Violence and abuse against women and girls is frequent on streets, in public transportation and in other public places. Such occurrences restrict women’s right to mobility, discouraging their freedom to walk freely and move in public spaces of their choice. Such violence also limits their access to essential services and adversely impact their health and wellbeing. In this context, and following the tragedy of December 2012, the Government has set up a dedicated fund – Nirbhaya Fund – which can be utilized for projects specifically designed to improve the safety and security of women. It is a non-lapsable corpus fund, being administered by Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.”
As per the guidelines issued by Ministry of Finance dt 25.03.2015, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) is the nodal Ministry to appraise/recommend proposals and schemes to be funded under Nirbhaya Fund. MWCD further has the responsibility to review and monitor the progress of sanctioned schemes in conjunction with the line Ministries/Departments.
Protection of Women and SDG
Protection of women is one of the vital targets under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by United Nations. Its goal 5 categorically talks about achieving gender equality and empower all women and girls. It includes eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres.
By government admission itself, lakhs of women are victimised every year. As per the data published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in the year 2020, a total of 3,71,503 cases of crime against women were registered across the country, the same Union Minister has informed on Wednesday.
