Since its inception in 2013, the Nirbhaya Fund, set up to finance projects to improve the safety and security of women, has seen significan...
Since its inception in 2013, the Nirbhaya Fund, set up to finance projects to improve the safety and security of women, has seen significant underutilisation and slow operationalisation of approved projects.
The government’s current spending on women-specific interventions that address violence against women is not even 25% of the actual requirement, according to a recent report by Oxfam India. Up to 90% of the current spending is accounted for by the Nirbhaya Fund itself.
The lockdown months saw an unprecedented increase in violence against women, particularly in domestic violence. Data from the fifth National Family Health Survey shows that six states and Union Territories saw a rise in domestic violence, and nine saw a rise in sexual abuse, between 2015-16 and 2019-’20. India’s rank on global gender indices remains low.
In this situation, it is important to reassess the Nirbhaya Fund as a policy and budgetary strategy for addressing violence against women.
Reduced allocations
While the rate of fund utilisation for Nirbhaya Fund schemes began to improve since 2018-’19, annual budgetary allocations for many of the schemes show a declining trend. In 2021-’22, three Nirbhaya Fund schemes under the Ministry of Women and Child Development – One Stop Centre Scheme, women helpline and Mahila Police Volunteers – have been merged...
