22-Jul-2022: Nirbhaya Fund

The Government of India has set up a dedicated fund called “Nirbhaya Fund” for implementation of initiative(s)/ scheme(s)/ project(s) aimed at enhancing the safety and security of women in the country.

One of the initiatives, i.e., 24X7 Women Helplines (WHLs) with short-code 181 provides emergency and non-emergency services as well as information dissemination about women centric government schemes, policies and programmes to the needy women.

One Stop Centre (OSC) popularly known as Sakhi Centre, are getting operationalised across the country since 1st April 2015 with the objectives to provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence and distress, both in private and public spaces under one roof and facilitate immediate, emergency and non-emergency access to a range of services including police, medical, legal aid and counselling, psychological support to fight against any forms of violence against women. As of now, 758 OSCs have been approved and out of which 708 are operational in 35 States/.

The services of OSCs and WHL are available both in rural and urban areas.

In addition, Government of India has launched 'Mission Shakti' - an integrated women empowerment programme as umbrella scheme for the safety, security and empowerment of women. Its component of Hubs for Empowerment of Women (HEW) under 'Samarthya sub-scheme, at the National, State/ UT and District level is for facilitating inter-sectoral convergence of schemes and programs meant for women with a mandates to create an environment through awareness generation, sensitization, training etc., in which the women realize their full potential.

16-Mar-2022: Nirbhaya Fund

Under Nirbhaya Fund, out of an allocation of Rs.6212.85 crore (including Rs. 500 crore allocated to the Ministry of Women and Child Development in the Financial Year 2021-22), a sum of Rs.4340.25 crore has been disbursed/ released by the concerned Central Ministries/ Departments and a sum of Rs.3069.97 crore has been reported to be utilized. It is possible that more funds have been actually utilised, but Utilisation Certificates (UCs) and Statement of Expenditure (SoE), as required, as per provisions of General Financial Rules (GFR) have not been submitted by the concerned States/ Implementing Agencies (IAs).  The States/ IAs are regularly followed up to submit UCs and SoEs.  

The projects/ schemes being implemented under Nirbhaya Fund are at various stages of implementation. The Empowered Committee (EC) of Officers constituted under the Framework for Nirbhaya Fund reviews the status of implementation of approved projects from time to time in conjunction with the concerned Ministries/ Departments/ Implementing Agencies (IAs). Further, the concerned Ministries/ Departments/ IAs, also review the implementation of their respective projects/ schemes at their levels.

22-Dec-2021: Nirbhaya Fund for Human Trafficking Survivors

Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an ‘Advisory’ on 06.07.2020 to all States/UTs on preventing and combating human trafficking especially during the period of COVID-19 pandemic. The Advisory is also available on the website of Ministry of Home Affairs (www.mha.gov.in). Ministry of Women and Child Development has also issued an Advisory on 23.10.2020 to all States/UTs on curbing and tackling human trafficking during the period of COVID-19 pandemic and also for the purpose of awareness generation.

''Police'' and ''Public Order'' are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. The responsibility to maintain law and order, protection of life and property of citizens including investigation and prosecution of crime against women and children rests primarily with the respective State Governments. The State Governments are competent to deal with such offences under extant provisions of laws.

The Government has formulated a scheme namely “NALSA (Victims of Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation) Scheme, 2015 to provide legal services to address the concerns of victims of trafficking including women of all age groups and at every stage: i.e. prevention, rescue and rehabilitation.

The thrust of the scheme is to provide economic and social pathways for these marginalized groups so that they are socially included and thus get all social protection available to an ordinary citizen. The interventions of the legal services authorities should be to ensure the protection of the dignity of the victims which is as much their fundamental right to a life with dignity as of any other citizen. Legal services authorities include women survivors of human trafficking for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation in the purview of assistance rendered by them.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing ‘Ujjwala’ scheme for prevention of trafficking and rescue, rehabilitation, reintegration and repatriation of victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation across the country. State Governments are responsible for identifying districts that need immediate attention to address the issue of trafficking, as well as for furnishing proposal to the Central Government for seeking its support for that purpose, including under the Ujjwala Scheme. The objectives of the scheme inter alia include (i) providing rehabilitation services, both immediate and long-term, to the victims by providing basic amenities/needs such as shelter, food, clothing, medical treatment including counseling, legal aid and guidance and vocational training, and (ii) facilitating reintegration of the victims into the family and society at large. Under ‘Rehabilitation’ component of the scheme, grant is provided for setting up of Ujjwala Homes on rent, staff, food, medical care, legal aid, education and vocational training. Under ‘Reintegration’ component, grant is provided for setting up Half-Way Home, seed money and follow-up visits.

The State Governments/Union Territories (UTs) have notified their victim compensation schemes in terms of Section 357A of the Code for Criminal Procedure(Cr.P.C). Further, in order to support and supplement the State Compensation Schemes, Ministry of Home Affairs had released Rs 200 crores as a one-time grant to State Governments/UTs in 2016-17 under the Central Victim Compensation Fund from Nirbhaya Fund. States/UTs use the fund to compensate victims of various crimes, including human trafficking. Specific details of victims compensated are not maintained at Central level.

29-Jul-2021: Safety and Security of Women and Children

The Government of India had set up a dedicated fund called ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ for implementation of initiatives aimed at enhancing the safety and security for women in the country. An Empowered Committee (EC) of officers constituted under Nirbhaya Framework appraises and recommends the proposals for funding under Nirbhaya Fund in conjunction with the concerned Ministries/ Departments/ Implementing Agencies. After appraisal by the EC, the concerned Ministries/ Departments obtain approval of their respective competent financial authorities to release funds out of their respective budgets and implement the approved projects /schemes directly or through States/ UTs/ Implementing Agencies.

19-Mar-2021: Women Safety Initiatives Under Nirbhaya Fund

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 (DEA), Ministry of Finance. As per the guidelines, the responsibility of Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) includes (i) nodal Ministry to appraise/ recommend proposals and schemes to be funded under Nirbhaya Fund and (ii) to review and monitor the progress of sanctioned schemes/ projects in conjunction with the line Ministries/Departments. Under Nirbhaya Fund, schemes/ projects worth Rs. 9288.45 Cr. have been appraised till date. An amount of Rs.5712.85 crore has been allocated and an amount of Rs.3544.06 crore has been disbursed/ released by the concerned Ministries/ Departments.

As per the Framework for Nirbhaya Fund (available at https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/Approved%20framework%20for%20Nirbhaya%20Fund_0.pdf), DEA is the nodal Ministry for any accretion into and withdrawal from the corpus. Budget allocations against approved projects are made in the budget of the respective Ministries/ Departments through Demands or Supplementary Demands for Grants. The salient features of Nirbhaya Fund like project contours, procedure for submitting proposals, procedure for processing proposals, funding pattern etc. is indicated in the aforesaid framework. Funding to Non-Governmental Organisations is not envisaged under the framework.

An Empowered Committee (EC) of Officers constituted under Nirbhaya Fund appraises and recommends the proposals for funding under Nirbhaya Fund and also reviews the status of implementation from time to time in conjunction with the concerned Ministries/ Departments/ Implementing Agencies. After appraisal by the EC, the concerned Ministry/ Department get / obtain approval of the Competent Financial Authority (CFA) to release the funds out of their respective budget and implement the project /scheme directly or through States/UTs / Implementing Agencies. Further, the monitoring and reporting mechanism is followed by the State/ UT Governments/ Implementing Agencies at their level as a part of the respective proposal.

20-Sep-2019: Shri Amit Shah launches Emergency Response Support System (ERSS- Dial 112), ‘E-Beat Book’ System and ‘E-Saathi’ App

Union Minister for Home Affairs, Shri Amit Shah launched three citizen centric services of the Chandigarh Police, in Chandigarh. The services include the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS - Dial 112), ‘E-Beat Book’ System and the ‘E-Saathi App’. The beat officer system has been the cornerstone of the Indian Policing system for ages and through such Citizen Centric Services, a SMART Police force can be built in the country.

ERSS is one of the key projects of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs under Nirbhaya Fund. It has been designed to play a pivotal role in mitigation or preventing escalation of crime, especially against women and children. ERSS provides a single emergency number (112), computer aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress. Citizens can send their emergency information through call, SMS, email and through the 112 India mobile app.

The ‘Dial 112’ emergency response service is an initiative to strengthen proactive community policing that would end confusion amongst distress callers, who at times end up dialling 100 in fire or medical emergency cases. Till now, there were more than 20 numbers that were running for the help of public for various emergency situations, which were creating confusion to the distress callers. But after starting this service, public will not face these problems. In future, the Emergency Number for Road Accidents (1073),Women Helpline (1091, 181), Child Help Line (1098), including other Helpline services would be added under the 112 unified emergency response number.

The ‘E-Beat Book’ is a web and mobile based application which will ease the collection, updation and analysis of the information related to crime and criminals in a real time. Chandigarh has been divided in 54 divisions. In each division, there is one ‘Atal Sehbhagita Kendra’ that is under the supervision of a Beat Officer, having an Android Phone to the use the app. The E-Beat Book would be linked with Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), which would help in a real time updation of crime/criminal data. The citizen can directly approach the ‘Atal Sehbhagita Kendra’ for redressal of their grievances and can render their suggestions too.

The ‘E-Saathi’ App would help the general public, including senior citizens, to remain in touch with the police and also give suggestions to facilitate participative community policing(‘Your Police at Your Doorstep’ initiative). The beat officer would be able to provide services like passport verification, tenant verification, servant verification, character certification etc. at a click of a button through the app, without the people needing to visit the police station. With this initiative, on one hand, where the beat officer would become more efficient in his/her working, this would make police-people communication a two-way process, on the other.

These valuable public services would effectively reduce the response time of police to address the distress calls of the public and strengthen the police-public interface endeavour of community policing.

27-Jul-2019: Schemes under Nirbhaya Fund

A total of 59 proposals/schemes have been received from various Ministries and State Governments and UT Administrations under Nirbhaya Fund during the last three years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 onwards. The details of the proposals/ schemes are given below:

Till date, 30 projects/schemes have been appraised and recommended by the Empowered Committee of officers for funding under Nirbhaya Fund.

Details of proposals/ projects/ schemes received for funding under Nirbhaya Fund during the last three years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 onwards.

 (From April, 2016 to till date)

10-Feb-2019: Parliamentary panel takes exception to Nirbhaya Fund being used for construction of buildings

A parliamentary panel has taken strong exception to the utilisation of Nirbhaya Fund in construction of buildings, saying such allocations virtually defeat the very purpose of the project.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, headed by Congress leader P Chidambaram strongly recommends that the home ministry should desist from sanctioning funds for schemes like construction of buildings from the Nirbhaya Fund and adhere to its original purpose.

The Nirbhaya Fund was started in 2013 by the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to implement initiatives aimed at enhancing safety and security of women across the country. The non-lapsable corpus fund was instituted following gangrape of a girl in Delhi in 2012 which triggered a nation-wide outrage and protests.

The committee said that sanctioning money from Nirbhaya Fund for schemes pertaining to compensation would render it as a fund for merely disbursal and would not have a desired impact at the ground-level in enhancing the security scenario for the women.

The panel observed that Rs 200 crore has been sanctioned as one-time grant for Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) Scheme for compensating women victims of acid attacks, rape, trafficking, etc. It appreciated the necessity and significance of the CVCF Scheme, however, suggesting that this scheme could have been funded from other sources.

The committee took note of the reply of the home ministry that the decreased allocation made for 'Schemes of Safety of Women' was primarily because most of the expenditure out of the approved outlay for Emergency Response Support System had already been incurred up to 2017-18.

The committee, however, felt that the home ministry should have been "more proactive in finding new technology-driven projects" that could have been implemented during the current fiscal year.

The committee feels that ministry should identify such innovative projects for funding and implementation. The committee, therefore, recommends that the ministry should undertake sincere efforts to identify innovative technology-driven projects that can enhance the safety of women, and seek additional funds for their implementation.