Context:

• The States and Union Territories have utilised less than 20% of the budget allocated to them under the Nirbhaya Fund for safety of women by the Central government between 2015 and 2018.

About Nirbhaya Fund:

• It is a dedicated fund set up by Ministry of Finance, in 2013, for implementation of initiatives aimed at enhancing the safety and security for women in the country.
• It is a non-lapsable corpus fund.
• Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal Ministry to appraise schemes under Nirbhaya Fund and also to review and monitor the progress of sanctioned Schemes in conjunction with the line Ministries/Departments.
• Central Victim Compensation Fund has been created under Nirbhaya, which is a corpus fund to support States/UTs for their Victim Compensation Scheme. This helps in ensuring adequate and timely support for women survivors of crime and violence.

Recent initiatives under Nirbhaya Fund:

One stop centres:

• It is a sub-scheme under National Mission for Empowerment of Women being run by Ministry of Women & Child Development.
• It is aimed at supporting women affected by violence in private and public spaces, within the family, community and at the workplace.
• Establishment of OSCs was one of the key components of Nirbhaya Fund. Every OSC is integrated with newly operational Women’s Helpline (181).

Safe city project:

• Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has approved a Safe City project for Lucknow at a total cost of Rs.194.44 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund Scheme.
• This approval i4s a part of MHA’s plans to implement Safe City projects in 8 selected cities, namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow under Nirbhaya Fund with the purpose of strengthening safety and security of women in public places.
• The project is implemented with collaboration of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology, respective municipal and police commissioners of the cities besides civil society organizations.

Mahila Police Volunteer:

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs has envisaged engagement of Mahila Police Volunteers (MPVs) in the States/UTs who will act as a link between police and community and help women in distress.
• Haryana is the first state to adopt this initiative.
• For implementing the initiative of Mahila Police Volunteer, fund will be released out of Nirbhaya Fund to the States.