Three Schemes Established Under Nirbhaya Fund
- One Stop Centres for women: have been established across the country. They are also known as Sakhi Centres. Since April 1, 2015, the Scheme has been implemented across the country to facilitate women affected by violence with access to an integrated range of services such as police, medical, legal, psychological support, and temporary shelter.
- Universalisation of Women Help Line: Since April 1, 2015, Universalisation of Women Help Line has been used to provide 24-hour emergency and non-emergency response to women affected by violence through referral services linking with appropriate authorities such as police, One Stop Centre, hospital, and by providing information about women welfare schemes/programs across the country (181). So far, women’s helplines have been established in 33 states/territories. They have handled over 54.25 lakh calls.
- Mahila Police Volunteer Scheme: The Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs has been implemented the Mahila Police Volunteer Scheme. Nirbhaya Fund is funding this scheme as a centrally sponsored scheme with the goal of creating and empowering MPVs. They are to serve as a liaison between the police and the community, as well as to assist women in distress. MPVs act as a public-police interface in the fight against crime against women and the reporting of incidents of violence against women such as domestic violence, child marriage, dowry harassment, and violence against women in public places.
The following are some of the programmes the Ministry of Home Affairs is implementing:
- Emergency Response Support System
- Central Victim Compensation Fund
The Ministry of Women and Child Development was questioned by a Parliamentary Standing Committee in 2016 on the slow implementation of programmes funded by the Nirbhaya fund. According to research by the Centre for Development and Human Rights (CDHR), the execution of Nirbhaya fund projects had been hampered by the time-consuming inter-ministerial cooperation required for project approval.
according to statistics made by the Home Ministry various programmes under various ministries have not even used half of the funds allotted to them. One such fund is the Nirbhaya Fund, whose under- or non-utilization has lately caught the attention of the Supreme Court. The states have been requested by the supreme court to disclose the amount they have received from the Nirbhaya Fund and to inform the court of the manner in which the funds have been distributed to victims of sexual assault.
Nirbhaya Fund
In response to the Nirbhaya Gang rape case, a special fund was established in 2013 with the goal of carrying out programmes to increase the security and protection of women in India. The name of the fund, “Nirbhaya Fund” comes from the gang-rape victim’s alias, “Nirbhaya,” which means “fearless.”