Under the Nirbhaya Fund, upto the financial year 2024-25, a total amount of Rs 7712.85 Crore has been allocated. The total amount released by the Ministries/ Departments and utilized out of the Nirbhaya fund is Rs 5846.08 Crore which is nearly 76% of the total allocation.

The projects/ schemes under Nirbhaya Fund are demand driven. The projects/ schemes initially appraised by Empowered Committee (EC) under Framework for Nirbhaya Fund generally have a staggered implementation schedule. Some of the appraised projects are directly implemented by Central Ministries/ Departments. However, majority of the projects are implemented through State Governments and Union Territory (UT) Administrations, in which Central Government releases funds to States/ UTs as per prescribed fund sharing pattern of respective States/ UTs. Implementation on the ground is done by the Implementing Agencies of States or UTs as per the approved timelines. Further, there are schemes, which require recurring expenditure for providing services for a long time, in respect of which, further funds are released upon receipt of Utilisation Certificates (UCs) and Statement of Expenditure (SoE) from the Implementing Agency (IA)/ Authority as per provisions of General Financial Rules (GFR). Hence, 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 GFR have not yet been received from States/ UTs/ IAs. The States/ IAs are regularly requested to submit UCs and SoEs on time. Various other factors such as time taken in getting required approvals from competent authorities, procedure to be followed for award of contract/ tender etc., also affect implementation of schemes/ projects.

An Empowered Committee (EC) of Officers constituted under the Framework for Nirbhaya Fund initially appraises and recommends the proposals for funding under Nirbhaya Fund. It also broadly reviews the status of implementation and status of expenditure of approved projects from time to time, in coordination with the Ministries/ Departments/Implementing Agencies concerned. Further, the Project/ Scheme Implementing Ministries/ Departments/ Agencies also review the progress of implementation at their level.

A number of schemes/ projects have been/ are being implemented by Government under 'Nirbhaya Fund' for enhancing the safety and security for women and girls in the country. 827 Anti-Human Trafficking Units have been set up for prevention of human trafficking and provide support to the victims. To ensure that the Police Stations are more women friendly and approachable, as they would be the first and single point of contact for any woman walking into a police station, 14,658 Women Help Desks (WHDs) have been set up, of which 13,743 are headed by women police officers. Cyber Forensic cum Training Labs have also been established in 33 States/UTs with 24,264 persons trained in handling cyber related cases. To provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence 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, 802 OSCs have been made functional in 36 States/UTs wherein over 10.80 lakh women have been assisted so far. To provide help and support to needy women and women in distress, Emergency Response Support System (ERSS-112) has been established in all 36 States and UTs for various emergencies, with computer aided dispatch of field/ police resources. Since its launch, over 43 crore calls have been handled so far. In addition to ERSS, a fully functional dedicated Women helpline (WHL-181) is operational in 35 States/ UTs except West Bengal. The WHL has also been integrated with ERSS. So far, Women Helplines have handled over 2.10 crore calls and assisted over 84.43 lakh women.

To ensure that justice is delivered to unfortunate women and young girls who are victims of heinous sexual offences, Government has been providing financial assistance to States/ UTs for setting up Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) since 2019. So far, 790 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) have been approved, out of which 745 including 404 exclusive POCSO (e-POCSO) courts are operational in 30 States/UTs, having disposed of more than 3,06,000 cases of rape, and offences under POCSO Act across the country. In order to support and supplement the State Compensation Schemes under Nirbhaya Fund, Rs 200 crore as a one-time grant was released to the State Governments/ UTs under the Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) to enable compensation to victims of various crimes especially sexual offences including rape, acid attacks, crime against children, human trafficking etc. To ensure safety of public places where women work and live, sub-projects under the Safe City Projects have been implemented in 8 Cities (namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai). To ensure safe transportation for women, rail and road transport projects like Integrated Emergency Response Management System (IERMS), Video Surveillance System at Konkan Railway, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Facial Recognition System (FRS) integrated with Video surveillance Systems, including Command-and-Control Centre at 7 major railway stations and tabs for safety of lone woman passenger on board the train by Ministry of Railways, and projects like Vehicle Tracking Platform with command and control centre across States/ UTs, and some State specific projects like Uttar Pradesh Road transport Corporation (UPSRTC), Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), etc. by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, have been implemented.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Smt. Savitri Thakur in Rajya Sabha in reply to a question today.

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