Union Government issued Guidelines for administration and operationalisation of Nirbhaya Fund

Union Government on 1 April 2015 issued Guidelines for utilization of the Nirbhaya Fund with a corpus of 3000 crore rupees. The fund has been approved by the Union Finance Ministry.

The Nirbhaya Fund was set up by Union Government under which various departments can seek money from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) for schemes to improve safety and security of women in the country.

The Guidelines are as follows:

• Ministry of WCD is the nodal authority which can be approached by various Ministries/Departments with the proposals/schemes, to be funded from Nirbhaya Fund targeted to strengthen the safety and security of women in the country.
• Ministry of WCD would appraise these schemes to decide their suitability to qualify for getting funds from the Nirbhaya Fund.
• Ministry of WCD shall forward the suitable proposals to Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) for necessary budgetary allocations in the respective Demands.  
• DEA shall appraise the proposal on financial and other aspects to avoid any duplicity of schemes/Government efforts to strengthen safety and security of women in the country.
• Budget Division of DEA would approve the funding of schemes from the fund and would also be the nodal Ministry for any accretion into and withdrawal from the fund.

About Nirbhaya Fund

The setting up of Nirbhaya Fund was announced by the Union Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2013-14 with Government contribution of 1000 crores rupees for empowerment, safety and security of women and girl children. The Fund is administered by Department of Economic Affairs of the Union Finance Ministry.

In the Union Budget 2014-15, two schemes were announced by the Finance Minister for funding through Nirbhaya Fund. These were:

• 150 crore rupees allocated to the scheme on backend integration of distress signal from victims with mobile vans and control rooms administered by Union Ministry of Home Affair
• 50 crore rupees allocated to scheme on Women Safety on Public Road Transport administered by Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.