Nirbhaya Fund: Features, Scheme and Implementation Issues

Nirbhaya Fund was announced in 2013 Union Budget to support initiatives by the government and NGOs working towards protecting the dignity and ensuring safety of women in India. The fund was started with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. The Fund is administered by Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) of the finance ministry.

Corpus of fund

The Nirbhaya fund as of now has a total corpus of Rs 3,000 crore. Rs 1,000 crore each was allocated to the fund since its initiation in 2014-15 and 2015-16 in addition to its initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore.

Nodal agency

Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal Ministry to appraise schemes under the Nirbhaya Fund. The ministry also reviews and monitors the progress of sanctioned Schemes in conjunction with other Ministries/Departments.  From time to time, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) issues guidelines for administration and operationalisation of the Fund.

Issues with Nirbhaya Fund

The government has been accused of keeping Nirbhaya Fund unutilised. With rise in cases of sexual harassment and crimes against women there is a crying need for implementation of such funds. For instance, the idea of creating one-stop crisis centre to promote easier access to medical aid, police assistance, legal help and psychological counselling remains only in paper. In May 2016, the Supreme Court also condemned the government keeping idle Rs. 3,000 crore national women’s safety fund.

Supreme Court’s order

The Supreme Court has urged the government to formulate a national policy for proper rehabilitation of rape survivors. By naming the fund as “just a lip service”, the Supreme Court has asked the Indian government to make sure that adequate relief is being provided to the victims of sexual offences.

Secondly, different states have different schemes. Some states provided compensation to victims of sexual offences just on registration of FIRs. Till date, there is no national plan on how rape victims are to be compensated. So, the Supreme Court has urged the central government for the creation of some national model on this.

Parliamentary Panel’s recommendations

A Parliamentary panel has pulled down the Ministry of Women and Child Development for keeping Nirbhaya Fund unutilised for last few years at a time when crimes against women have been on the rise. The Panel has called the ministry to come up with concrete steps to ensure the safety and well-being of women.

Challenges to the Nirbhaya Fund

The implementation of the Victim Compensation Scheme is a matter of concern. Only 25, out of 29 states so far had notified the scheme. Under this scheme, the states were supposed to set up one-stop crisis centres in each district. Accordingly, 653 crisis centres were supposed to be operational across the country. But till date it is not yet clear how many such crisis centres have been set up.

Also, there is no uniformity among the states in implementing the schemes. There also exists difference in the compensation paid by the states. While some states pay Rs 10 lakh few others pay only Rs 50,000 to the survivors who were victims of crimes.

Moreover under Section 357A of CrPC, every state government is required to prepare a scheme for providing funds in co-ordination with the Central government for the purpose of compensation to victims or their dependents of the crime and require rehabilitation. But the ground reality is haphazard.

Schemes under Nirbhaya Fund

Ministry of Women and Child Development has initiated three schemes under the Nirbhaya Fund. They are:

• One Stop Centre: These are popularly known as Sakhi Centres. The scheme began to function across India from April 2015. The scheme aims to establish centres to facilitate women who are victims of violence. The Centres provide first aid, medical aid, police assistance, legal aid and counselling support. About 186 centres will be made operational by July, 2017.
• Universalisation of Women Helpline: The Department of Telecommunication has allocated the number 181 for Women Helpline. As of now, Women Helplines are already operational in 18 States/UTs. These helpline numbers will link the One Stop Centres being established under the Nirbhaya Fund.
• Mahila Police Volunteer scheme: Mahila Police Volunteers (MPVs) is envisaged to act as a link between police and community and help women in distress. Haryana has become the first state to start this scheme in December, 2016. Other States are expected to follow suit.

Schemes of Ministry of Home Affairs:

• Emergency Response support System: Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) envisages an integrated computer aided emergency response platform that aims to ensure speedy assistance to the distressed persons.
• Central Victim Compensation Fund: Central Victim Compensation Scheme (CVCF) has been framed under section 357A of CrPC. Under this initiative a Corpus Fund will be disbursed to States/UT to facilitate States/UTs in providing compensation to the victim (including survivors of rape and acid attack) or her dependents who have suffered loss or injury as a result of the crime.

Schemes of Ministry of Railways:

• Integrated Emergency Response Management System: This will provide round the clock security to women passengers in 983 Railway Stations across the country by strengthening of security arrangements of Railways with Security Helpline, Medical Facilities, RPF and police, installation of CCTV cameras, etc.
• Abhaya Project Proposal (Andhra Pradesh): Abhaya Project is a proposal proposed by Andhra Pradesh for ensuring the safety of Women and Girl child during the transport (auto rickshaw).
• CHIRALI-Friends Forever (Rajasthan): Under this scheme, Community Action Groups in 7 districts of Rajasthan has been constituted for a period of three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19 to create an enabling environment to support girls and women to move freely and make use of opportunities for their overall well being.

Issues Around Utilization of Nirbhaya Fund

• Less than 20% of the budget allocated between 2015 and 2018 to States and Union Territories under the Nirbhaya Fund were utilized.
• The top five States in terms of utilization of money across various schemes under the Nirbhaya Fund were Chandigarh (59.83%), Mizoram (56.32%), Uttarakhand (51.68%), Andhra Pradesh (43.23%) and Nagaland (38.17%).
• The bottom five States were Manipur, Maharashtra, Lakshadweep which didn’t spend even a single penny followed by West Bengal (0.76%) and Delhi (0.84%).
• Delhi which was the hub of protests aftermath of Nirbhaya case didn’t use any money for three of the four schemes, viz schemes for emergency support, women helpline, and cyber crime prevention and used a mere 3.41% of the money it received for compensating victims of gender based violence.
• None of the 36 States and UTs has spent any money on the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children programme.
• As many 21 States have not used any money under the Central Victim Compensation Fund for providing support to victims of rape, acid attacks, human trafficking and women killed or injured in cross border firing.
• Funds allocated for the Emergency Response Support System, which envisages a pan-India emergency number for police, rescue, health and fire services remained unused by 18 States.
• Bihar did not use even a single rupee out of Rs 5.20 crore for One Stop Centres between 2015 and 2019 and Uttar Pradesh didn’t use any money from Rs 1.91 crore given to it for the Women Helpline Scheme, yet it was granted Rs 46.5 lakh again in 2019.

At one side, time and again it is said that there is dearth of funds to take necessary steps towards women safety and empowerment. But the official data shows contrary. It is time for a serious introspection on where the states are lying behind in terms of utilization under the Nirbhaya Fund.

Way Forward

Government should improve coordination between the ministries for speedier implementation of projects under the schemes of this nature. Delay caused by lengthy inert-ministerial coordination must not be allowed to compromise women’s safety. The Government and legislators must act proactively on delivering equality and security to women.