#NoMoreNirbhaya: 3 Years On, Nirbhaya Fund Woefully Underutilised

Nirbhaya’s mother wants to meet the juvenile convict who is set be released this month.

16 December 2015 will mark the third anniversary of the Delhi gang-rape that has etched itself in the nation’s memory. As part of our #NoMoreNirbhaya campaign, here is our coverage of the sad aftermath, particularly the apathetic treatment of the Nirbhaya fund.

As the date of the juvenile convict’s release approaches, Nirbhaya’s parents are doing all they can to ensure he remains behind bars. Now a major, the man was just shy of 18 on the night of 16 December 2012, when he and his companions brutally gangraped and murdered the woman who has now come to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’.

Now, her mother has told The Quint that she is even prepared to meet him in the Observation Home in Delhi, where he has been incarcerated for the past three years.

I want to meet him at the observation home. I don’t know whether he is still in there or not. Someone told me that he has been released. Why is the government hiding his release date? Why can’t they share it with the people? The government is concerned about his safety, but is it not its responsibility to ensure the safety of society?

Nirbhaya’s mother to The Quint

The Quint had earlier reported that the Minister of Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, has turned down the parents’s plea to halt the release of the juvenile convict. For the past week, they’ve been making efforts to meet the Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, but with little success.

We have been calling the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s office for an appointment to meet him. But we haven’t got one yet. I want to request the CM to allow me to meet the juvenile convict in the Observation Home.

Nirbhaya’s Mother

Legal experts say that after his release, the juvenile convict cannot be placed in any kind of confinement. Nor is there any provision in the Juvenile Justice Act to stop his release. The Juvenile Justice Board will be the final authority in the fate of the convict’s release.

No one can keep the juvenile within the confinements after he is released from the Observation Home. The law doesn’t permit it. He can be kept in an NGO or in an ‘After-care’ home only with his consent.

Kamini Jaiswal, Senior Advocate, The Supreme Court

Nirbhaya Fund Underutilised Largely

Since 16 December 2012, when she was raped, there have been dozens of rapes in the capital. The city is still unsafe. Why then has the government failed to make Delhi a safer city for women and children?

• On February 2013, the Union Government announced the setting up of the ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ with Rs 1,000 crore as the corpus.
  
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development and related ministries were given the task to work out details of the structure, scope and application of the fund.
  
• In Feb 2014, the Ministry of Women of Child Development made a proposal for the establishment of an integrated Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) platform for supporting Geographical Information System-based (GIS) call-tracking and a Geographical Positioning System-based (GPS) police vehicle dispatch system to respond to women and other distress calls. This is at an advanced stage of approvals.
  
• The Ministry of Information Technology too proposed the introduction of mandatory provisions of SOS alert buttons in all new handsets. For existing handsets, the proposal was to make available software downloads.
• The government had also proposed the installation of cameras in all public transport. A male constable in plainclothes was to be placed in all buses to ensure the safety of women.

• The Nirbhaya fund has made more news for being alarmingly underutilised till the 2015-16 budget, than for making any significant improvement to women’s safety.

Whenever such incidents happen, they become a source of embezzlement of funds for the government. No one knows where the Nirbhaya Fund is, whether it has gone into the pockets of politicians or if it is lying unused.

Kamini Jaiswal, Senior Advocate, The Supreme Court

On 25 May, the Lok Sabha passed a Bill providing for trying juveniles aged between 16 and 18 as majors in heinous crimes. This Bill is still pending in the Rajya Sabha.

For the past 3 years, the government has been trying to change the Juvenile Justice Act. But till now the Act has not been changed. Nothing has changed, rather, crime against women is on the increase.

Nirbhaya’s Mother

According to sources in the Juvenile Justice Board, the juvenile convict is likely to be released by December 15, 2015. Keeping in mind his safety, the Government is unlikely to announce the date of his release.