Review of Nirbhaya Scheme for improving safety and security of women in cities
The Nirbhaya Fund was set up by the Government of India in 2013 as a non-lapsable corpus of INR 1000 crores for the empowerment, safety and security of women and girl child. The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Information Technology, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Home Affairs are also involved in the fund planning and allotment process. Out of an allocation Rs.6212.85 crore (including Rs. 500 crore allocated to Ministry of Women and Child Development in the year Financial Year 2021-22) till date, under Nirbhaya Fund, a sum of Rs. 4087.37 crore has been disbursed/ released by the concerned Ministries/ Departments and a sum of Rs. 2871.42 crore has been reported to be utilized. Of the various projects that have been approved for funding, projects related to safe transport for women these include CCTV installations on bus and stations, vehicle tracking systems, app development and panic buttons and setting up monitoring centers are prominent. The research will look into evaluating some of the projects undertaken to understand the impacts these have on improvement of safety and security of women along with the implementation challenges for the same.
