Nirbhaya Fund: Par'l panel flags slow scheme implementation

Women and Child Development Ministry has received flak from a Parliamentary Standing Committee for "slow" implementation of schemes envisaged under the Nirbhaya Fund and asked the ministry to act "with a sense of urgency".
"The pace of implementation of the schemes envisaged under the Nirbhaya Fund is going at a very slow rate. Incidents of violence against women are increasing with every passing minute and the funds meant to tackle this problem remain idle," The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development commented.
The Committee said it is "constrained" to note "no concrete steps have been taken up by the authorities concerned to deal with this situation and most part of scheme is still at the planning stage".

"The Committee recommends that the Ministry should take up this matter with a great sense of urgency as the reality paints a very gloomy picture," it said.
It has also demanded an update from the ministry reasons for delay in implementing schemes under the Nirbhaya Fund "especially in view of the ever increasing crimes against women seen on a daily basis across the country."
The Nirbhaya Fund was set up after announcement in the 2013 Union Budget in the aftermath of the December 2012 gang rape and currently has a total corpus of Rs 2,000 crore.