By Maya Palit
Last month we heard that Rs 500 crore of the giant 1000 crore (per year) Nirbhaya fund was being allocated to building CCTVs in railway stations. But we keep hearing reports of how the ministry shows the fund has been allocated to NGOs and ministries, although details remain scanty.
But what about individual states and how they’re handling the money?
According to a report in the New Indian Express about how certain southern states are using the fund, Tamil Nadu said it hasn’t received any money but apparently it hasn’t even sent a proposal to the Centre about how it wants to use the fund. The Social Welfare Department officials say they will begin to prepare a proposal and hopefully draft it by June. Karnataka claims that compensation for rape victims hasn’t reached it yet (it spent 2 crore on victim compensation in 2016-17 but 142 people are still waiting to be paid).
The Andhra Pradesh government, which planned to use Rs 139 crore earlier this year for Abhaya, a project to make transport safer for women, apparently by digitising drivers’ history with law and order and other initiatvies. But it is yet to begin its pilot project in Vishakhapatnam. Kerala, on the other hand, has expanded its project: while it has placed an emphasis on CCTV cameras in buses, it also allocated 19 crore for shelters and homes, as well as crisis centres.
The Supreme Court made it pretty clear earlier this year that there was no point paying ‘lip service’ to the Nirbhaya fund, and issues notices to the Centre and state governments demanding information about why the funds remain severly under-utilised, but it looks like nothing is about to change anytime soon.