Govt sanctions Rs 29 bn under Nirbhaya fund to make cities safer for women

The Centre on Thursday approved projects worth over Rs 29 billion under the Nirbhaya fund for eight major cities of the country in a bid to make them safer for women.

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad Ahmedabad and Lucknow have been sanctioned a total of Rs 29.19 billion after a meeting today of the Empowered Committee, which is headed by the secretary of Women and Child Development (WCD), a official statement said.

The Nirbhaya Fund was set up in the aftermath of the gruesome gangrape and murder of a paramedical student in Delhi in 2012, and aims at improving safety for women.

Delhi has been sanctioned Rs 6.63 billion for using latest technologies, such as video monitoring, facial recognition analytics and tracking of people.

The national capital will also get more police patrol vans equipped with GPS and the capability of sharing video feed.

Mumbai has been granted Rs 2.52 billion for projects, which include mapping of criminal hotspots, video surveillance as well as for strengthening the "Police Didi" programme which focuses on women police personnel interacting with women living in slums.

Kolkata will get Rs 1.81 billion for various schemes, including for strengthening nine women police stations.

Bengaluru has been sanctioned projects worth Rs 6.67 billion, which include setting up women police outposts and creation of safety islands at vulnerable places.

According to a senior official of the ministry of women and child development, "These proposals have been sanctioned for a period of three years on a cost sharing basis of 60:40 ratio with states."

Between 2013 and 2017, the corpus of Nirbhaya Fund has grown to Rs 31 billion. Another Rs 5 billion has been set aside for it for the next fiscal.

These programmes have been sanctioned after various rounds of meeting between the officials of the ministry well as municipal corporations and police commissioners of these cities.

The Empowered Committee also okayed user trial of panic button feature on mobile phones in Uttar Pradesh to be initiated later this month. It has also sanctioned setting up of a model forensic science laboratory in Chandigarh.