Govt approved projects worth Rs 7000 cr under Nirbhaya fund

Govt approved projects worth Rs 7000 cr under Nirbhaya fund
Question: Under the NIRBHAYA Fund, Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoW&CD) has announced the approval of projects worth
(a) Rs 7,000 crore
(b) Rs 7,500 crore
(c) Rs 8,000 crore
(d) Rs 10,000 crore
Answer: (a)
Related facts:
  • Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoW&CD) has announced the approval of projects worth Rs 7,000 crore including setting up of 1023 fast-track courts under Nirbhaya fund.
  • These courts were decided to be set up in order to provide speedy trials of over 1.66 lakh pending cases of crime against women and children in India. 

Nirbhaya Fund:

  • The Nirbhaya fund was set up in 2013 with Rs.1000 crores corpus by the Congress party-led govt. as a tribute to a 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim. Nirbhaya (fearless) was the pseudonym given to the victim to hide the original identity.
  • The Nirbhaya Fund can be utilized for projects of women safety and security.
  • Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) is the nodal authority for the Nirbhaya Fund in place of Home Ministry.It is the authority for appraising/recommending the proposals/schemes to be funded under Nirbhaya Fund.
  • Earlier, MoWCD was the one releasing the funds but now it examines the programmes submitted to it by the states under Nirbhaya scheme, approves them and recommends to the department of economic affairs for allocating funds.

Nirbhaya fund administration:

  • The Nirbhaya Fund Framework provides for a non-lapsable corpus fund for safety and security of women administered by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of the Government of India.
  • Further, it provides for an Empowered Committee (EC) of officers chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development (MWCD) to appraise and recommend proposals to be funded under this framework.

Failing in motive:

  • Despite of handsome funding, Nirbhaya Fund hasn’t earned significant achivement to ensure women safety.
  • The horrific gangrape and murder of a woman veterinarian in Telangana, and similar incidents in Bihar, Rajasthan and Karnataka indicate that women are as unsafe and fearful today as they were on the eve of Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

Links:

https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/projects-worth-rs-7-000-okayed-under-nirbhaya-fund-119122001435_1.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirbhaya_Fund

https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/nirbhayatoupload_0.pdf