Panel notes 'gross underutilisation' of Nirbhaya Fund

A parliamentary panel, noting the gross underutilisation of the Nirbhaya Fund yet again, has said that the Fund should not be utilised by other ministries to construct routine infrastructure. The panel also noted that despite repeated recommendations, till now only 30% of the Fund has been utilised.

The Nirbhaya Fund is a corpus formed in the aftermath of the gangrape-murder of a young paramedic in the streets of Delhi in December 2012. The corpus funds women's safety schemes and the union ministry of women and child development is the nodal ministry overlooking the utilisation.

“The Committee recalls that in its various recommendations, it has highlighted the need for effective utilisation of Nirbhaya Fund. Despite the legal frameworks and various institutions put in place, violence against women has not been reduced and the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic had worsened the situation of women in the country,” the report read.

In the report, the parliamentary standing committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports reiterated the recommendations of its 334th report.

The panel said that out of the allocated funds of Rs 9549 crore, of which Rs 4241 crores were released till now, the funds utilised under the Nirbhaya Fund so far stands at around Rs 2989 crores.

“The Committee also recommends that the concerned Ministries must develop a robust mechanism for constant monitoring of Projects/Schemes being handled by them. Also, guidelines may be prepared to ensure that this fund is not utilised for creating routine infrastructure, which even otherwise the relevant Departments have to undertake,” the panel recommended.

Underutilisation of funds was found in the WCD ministry’s other schemes as well. The panel noted that under Mission Vatsalya, the section that looks at the ministry’s schemes for children, utilisation stood at just above 30% of the budgetary estimates.

The Committee said that the budgetary estimate of Mission Vatsalya was Rs 900 crore, which was revised to Rs 829.65 crore. However, the utilised allocation was Rs 286.57, which is only 34.54 % of the revised estimates. The budgetary estimate for 2022-23 is Rs 1472.17 crore.

“The Committee notes that Mission Vatsalya has a total financial implication of Rs 10,916 crore, with a central share of Rs 6928 crore and state share of Rs 3988 crore … during last 5 years, total allocation under Child Protection Services (CPS) Scheme was Rs 3852 crore which shows an increase of about 63.68% in allocation under Mission Vatsalya as compared to CPS scheme.

The panel has asked the Ministry to get an independent evaluation done to plug gaps.

“The Committee is of the view that since children have been recognised by policymakers as one of the supreme national assets, and India is home to 472 million children up to the age of 18 years which comprise 39 per cent of the country’s population, it would be prudent for the Ministry to get an independent evaluation done of the manner of use of resources, allocations, coordination with State Governments, issues hampering effective implementation so that the objectives of Mission Vatsalya can be fully realised with the enhanced Budgetary allocation,” the panel’s report noted.

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