4 yrs passed, Nirbhaya fund still of no use for rape survivors

SUNIL NEGI

Despite tremendous increase in the cases of rapes and subsequent deaths of the victims, its really worrisome to note that the various governmental agencies though making enough claims of improving the situation on this crucial front, have actually failed to a majority extent.

It seems we haven’t learnt any lessons from the most obnoxious and outrageous incidents of Nirbhaya and hundreds of others that have followed there after. The crux of the problem is the complacense on the part of the authorities concerned and the ministry of women, child and development at the centre as well as the states.

The women community today despite so much of talk of their empowerment are still the most vulnerable lot. Come every morning, you open the pages of your newspaper or open the television sets shameful incidents of incessant sexual harrasments, rapes and subsequent despicable deaths are the order of the with law enforcing agencies, the police in particular majorly involved in the VIP annd VVIP security but have little time to divert their attention towards this vulnerable section of the society.

The cases of mysterious missing of the girl child, massive trafficking of adoloscent girls and incidents of rapes n murders are never on the decline except in cases of fudging of records as being done in majority of districts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and the north eastern states where abject poverty and por law enforcement system laced with uncontrolled corruption has overtaken the bureaucracy and those at the helm.

After the nationwide outrage all over the country in the year 2013 the government had introduced for the first time a gigantic fund with Rs 1000 crores that was later on enhanced to 3000 crores in the year 2016/17/18 in order to help the rape survivors all over the country to make them stand on their feet by becoming financially self reliant.

The fund was also to be used in developing and implementing gadgets that may be helpful to reduce crime against women like providing CCTV cameras, GPS in public transports, imparting of martal arts trainng  and bringing the perpetrater of violence and sexual assault to justice. Three ministeries are primarily involved in the justifiable disbursement of this funds in various states to the rape survivors viz Ministry of finance, Ministry of Women and Child Development and ministry of Home Affairs.

What is shocking and disturbing about this whole story is that in the absence of any concrete and justifiable integrated system for disbursement of Nirbhaya fund through the above three ministeries not only are the rape survivors suffering but the states are also misusing the funds and not submitting reports to the centre thus making the disbursement a messy affair. Finally the apex court of the court of the country had to intervene.

The bench headed by justice M. Lokur has expressed its serious annoyance on the inadequate, unjustifiable and illogical distribution of the Nirbhaya fund by states like Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh Jharkhand and even Delhi for not furnishing written details in the absence of the nodal ministry to adequately handle the disbursements.

THE COURT scolded the centre on the improper handling of the Nirbhaya fund and vowed to set the concrete frame work and guidelines in this context.
Sunil Negi, President, Uttarakhand Journalists Forum