Nirbhaya fund lying under Utilised

New Delhi: The Rs 1000 Crore Nirbhaya Fund created in the aftermath of the brutal murder and rape of a 23-year-old paramedic student in the capital four years ago that shook the whole nation is lying severely under utilised. The fund was created to boost measures for the security and safety of women, but the Government is yet to chalk out proper schemes for implementation of the objectives of the creation of the fund. It has been found by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Ministry that as of now, the funds were being used for miscellaneous expenditure only which does not address the safety and security concerns of women.

‘’The government after due consultation with states and Union territories should prepare proper schemes with measurable outcomes,’’ the committee said in its latest report. The report also noted that there was severe under-reporting of crimes related to online child sex abuse in India. The National Crime Record Bureau does not maintain any separate record of cyber crimes against crime against children. However, whatever data was collected by NCRB, though rudimentary it was, it gave an insight into the state of law enforcement in the country as it was unbelievable that in most of the states, there was no incidence of any online child sex abuse.

The data indicates an extremely poor law enforcement in relations to these crimes as it only collects information of reported cases and it fails to give a reflection of the real picture, the committee said. ‘’The law enforcement agencies need to be made aware of the challenging aspect cyber crimes against children and their capacity to record and initiate action against such crimes,’’ it said. It also noted the fact that child sexual abuse and related crime remain very much under-reported in India due to the associated stigma and propensity of parents guardians not to involve police in these matters.

It was of the view that the process of reporting such crimes should be simplified and identity of children involved should be protected to ensure thatsuch crimes do not go underreported. It advised the Government to ask all states to create an Online Cyber Crime Reporting Platform under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children Schemes and publicise it adequately. (UNI)