Nearly half of Nirbhaya funds unutilised, shows data

The gap between allocation and actual spending by the ministry of women and child development on empowerment and protection of women has been rising for the last six years

Last week, the government informed the Parliament that of the Rs 6,212.85 crore allocated under the Nirbhaya fund, only two-thirds, or Rs 4,212.91 crore, could be disbursed to the concerned ministries and departments. Utilisation is expected to be further lower. Until July last year, a sum of Rs 2,871.42 crore, or 46 per cent of the allocated amount, had been utilised by various ministries, central departments and states.

A state-wise comparison shows a wide disparity in the utilisation of funds. A Business Standard analysis found that only four states/UTs had utilised over 90 per cent of funds allocated under the Nirbhaya Scheme. In contrast, utilisation levels for 22 out of the 36 states and UTs were less than two-thirds.

Among the laggards, Andhra Pradesh and Ladakh could utilise less than a third of their funds, whereas Bihar and Jharkhand had not even used 50 per cent of the allocated funds.

The performance of ministry of women and child development is worse. While the ministry had budgeted spending of Rs 30,007 crore in 2020-21, its budget has shrunk by 16 per cent in 2022-23. A Business Standard analysis found that the gap between the budgeted amount and actual spending by the ministry of women and child development women protection has been increasing. In 2016-17, the ministry fell short of spending 3.1 per cent of its total allocated funds, which increased to 20.6 per cent by 2019-20. In 2020-21, data indicates that over a third of the ministry’s funds remained unutilised.

The mission for women protection and empowerment shows a similar trajectory. In 2018-19, the government had budgeted Rs 1,365.6 crore for the mission for empowerment and protection of women but could only utilise Rs 1,137.9 crore, and 16.7 per cent of the funds

In 2020-21, while Rs 1,163 was allocated, spending was much lower at Rs 817.3 crore, and nearly 30 per cent of the funds remained unspent. In 2021-22, 31 per cent of the funds will remain unutilised.

The amount of money spent on other schemes funded from the Nirbhaya fund shows similar trends. In 2016-17, the government used nearly half of the funds budgeted for other schemes; in 2019-20, it only spent Rs 0.1 crore of the Rs 80 crore budgeted.