Nirbhaya Fund: Rs 200 cr for rape, acid attack victims

An amount of Rs 200 crore has been allocated under the Nirbhaya Fund for the rehabilitation of rape and acid attack victims, the government said on Thursday.

“The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has set up a Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore from the Nirbhaya Fund. As per the Central Victim Compensation Fund Scheme (CVCS), the state governments are required to modify the state Victim Compensation Scheme (VCS) suitably in view of the implementation of the CVCS guidelines, which is put up on MHA’s website – www.mha.nic.in,” said Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Sanjay Gandhi in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. 

Giving details of VCS, she said, “The compensation part of the rehabilitation of victims of violence, including acid attack or rape, is governed by Section 357A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which lays that every state government, in co-ordination with the Centre, shall prepare a scheme for providing funds for the purpose of compensation to the victims.” 

So far, 24 states and seven UTs have formulated the VCS, she said. On details of amount allocation under the Nirbhaya Fund, Gandhi said the Ministry of Women and Child Development has been allocated money for two programmes. Firstly, the ‘One Stop Centre’ scheme is being run with a total project cost of Rs 18.58 crore, and secondly, the universalisation of Women Helpline with Rs 69.49 crore. 

She said the MHA has been allocated money from the Fund as well – for the creation of CVCF for supporting  the state or UT administration  for the implementation of VCS, for which Rs 200 crore has been allocated. Besides, for the creation of Investigative Units for Crime against Women (IUCAW) in all police districts across the country, Rs 324 crore has been allocated. 

“Funds amounting to Rs 10.71 crore have been released in respect to One Stop Centre and Rs 13.92 crore has been sanctioned for Women Helpline,” she said.