The central government has allocated Rs 2,264 crore to various states and union territories from the Nirbhaya Fund for Women's Safety, but ironically these states did not use nearly 89% of the money. How irresponsible state governments are for women's safety can be gauged from the fact that no state has been able to spend more than half of the funds allocated from the center.
Out of a total of 36 states and union territories, 18 have spent only 15% of the allocated amount. Uttarakhand and Mizoram topped the expenditure with 50% in the use of Nirbhaya Fund. They are followed by Chhattisgarh with 43%, Nagaland with 39% and Haryana with 32% spending in third, fourth and fifth place respectively. Surprisingly, only 5% of the money has been used in Delhi, which has been maligned across the country due to criminal acts against women. This is the situation when the Delhi government keeps making big promises and claims to ensure the safety of women.
States spend only 11%
The figures of Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi's Children's Foundation have been sent to Parliament. According to these figures, the states spent only 11% of the total allocated Nirbhaya fund. On 29 November, the Ministry of Women and Child Development presented a national and state-wise analysis in response to a question. Due to the slow process of estimation, the exact amount of money spent from the utilization certificate is not available, but it is not that the actual data will be much higher than the data given in the certificate.
21% of funds used in U.P.
According to the 2017 report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Maharashtra ranks second in the country in crime against women while third in the case of crime against children. In recent times, the incidents against women and children which rocked the country, happened in Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh. But, the report says that these states Karnataka, Telangana and Odisha spent only 6% of the Nirbhaya Fund while Uttar Pradesh used 21%.
