Govt decides to continue women safety scheme till 2025-26

The decision has been taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

PTI, New Delhi, Feb 22, 2024 : The government on Wednesday decided to continue the umbrella scheme on ‘Safety of Women’ at a total cost of Rs 1,179.72 crore during the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

The decision has been taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

The union cabinet approved the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs of continuation of implementation of umbrella scheme on ‘Safety of Women’ at a total cost of Rs 1,179.72 crore during the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26, an official release said.

Out of the total project outlay of Rs 1,179.72 crore, a total of Rs 885.49 crore will be provided by the MHA from its own budget and Rs 294.23 crore will be funded from Nirbhaya Fund.

Safety of women in a country is an outcome of several factors like stringent deterrence through strict laws, effective delivery of justice, redressal of complaints in a timely manner and easily accessible institutional support structures to the victims, the release said.

Stringent deterrence in matters related to offences against women was provided through amendments in the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Evidence Act.

In its efforts towards women safety, the Government of India in collaboration with states and Union Territories has launched several projects.

The objectives of these projects include strengthening mechanisms in states and Union Territories for ensuring timely intervention and investigation in case of crime against women and higher efficiency in investigation and crime prevention in such matters.

The Government of India has proposed to continue the a number of projects under the Umbrella Scheme for “Safety of Women”.

These are: Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) 2.0; Upgradation of Central Forensic Sciences laboratories, including setting up of National Forensic Data Centre; Strengthening of DNA Analysis, Cyber Forensic capacities in State Forensic Science Laboratories (FSLs).

The projects include Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children; Capacity building and training of investigators and prosecutors in handling sexual assault cases against women and children; and Women Help Desk & Anti-human Trafficking Units. 

  

According to the NCRB data, the rate of crime against women per one-lakh population stood at 66.4, while the chargesheeting in such cases was logged at 75.8.

Most of the cases of crime against women lodged under IPC sections were for "cruelty by husband or his relatives" (31.4 per cent), followed by "kidnapping and abduction of women" (19.2 per cent), "assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty" (18.7 per cent) and "rape" (7.1 per cent), according to the data in the annual crime report of the NCRB, which functions under the MHA.

According to the data, tabled in Parliament last year, more than 13.13 lakh young girls and women went missing in the country in three years (from 2019 to 2021) and the highest number of such incidents was reported from Madhya Pradesh, followed by West Bengal.

A total of 10,61,648 women (aged above 18 years) and 2,51,430 girls went missing in the country in the said period.

The data was compiled by the NCRB.

In Madhya Pradesh, 1,60,180 women and 38,234 girls went missing in the three years.

A total of 1,56,905 women and 36,606 girls went missing from West Bengal in 2019, 2020 and 2021. In Maharashtra, 1,78,400 women and 13,033 girls went missing in the said period.

In Odisha, 70,222 women and 16,649 girls went missing in the three years, while 49,116 women and 10,817 girls went missing from Chhattisgarh in the said period.