Nirbhaya Fund: Centre Approves Rs 2,900 Cr to Make Cities Safer

The Nirbhaya Fund was set up in the aftermath of the gangrape and murder of a student in Delhi in 2012.

Five years after the Nirbhaya gangrape case, sexual violence victims in India still have a dismal chance at getting justice.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The Centre on Thursday, 1 March approved projects worth over Rs 2,900 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund, for eight major cities of the country. in a bid to make them safer for women.

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow have been sanctioned a total of Rs 2,919.55 crore after a meeting, on Thursday, of the Empowered Committee, which is headed by the secretary of Women and Child Development (WCD), an official statement said.

The Nirbhaya Fund was set up in the aftermath of the gruesome gangrape and murder of a paramedical student in Delhi in 2012, and aims at improving safety for women.

Delhi has been sanctioned Rs 663.67 crore for using latest technologies, such as video monitoring, facial recognition, analytics, and tracking of people. The national capital will also get more police patrol vans equipped with GPS and the ability to share video feeds.

Mumbai has been granted Rs 252 crore for projects, which include the mapping of criminal hotspots and video surveillance, as well as for strengthening the "Police Didi" programme which focuses on women police personnel interacting with women living in slums.

Kolkata will get Rs 181.32 crore for various schemes, including for strengthening nine women police stations.

Bengaluru has been sanctioned projects worth Rs 667 crore, which include setting up women police outposts and the creation of safety islands at vulnerable locations.

According to a senior official of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, "These proposals have been sanctioned for a period of three years on a cost sharing basis of 60:40 ratio with states."

Between 2013 and 2017, the corpus of Nirbhaya Fund has grown to Rs 3,100 crore. Another Rs 500 crore has been set aside for it for the next fiscal.

These programmes have been sanctioned after various rounds of meeting between the officials of the ministry, as well as municipal corporations and police commissioners of these cities.