Only Rs 19.26 Cr Nirbhaya Fund Utilised In Odisha, Union WCD Minister

New Delhi: The Centre has released Rs 26.54 crore to Odisha under Nirbhaya Fund for establishment and management of One Stop Centers in 2021-22, said Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Women and Child Development on Wednesday.

Replying to an unstarred question from Satish Chandra Dubey and Mamata Mohanta in the Rajya Sabha o allocation and utilisation of Nirbhaya Fund for the states of Bihar and Odisha, Smriti said while Rs 26.54 crore has been disbursed/released to Odisha, Rs 28.31 crore was disbursed for Bihar .

Odisha received Rs 20.24 crore in 2016-17, followed by Rs 4.12 crore in
2017-18; Rs 8.74 crore in 2018-19; Rs 24.87 crore in 2019-20; Rs 15.77 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 23.80 crore in 2021-22.

Of these allocations, Rs 19.26 crore has been utilised in Odisha, the Minister mentioned.

She said “Out of Rs 6212.85 crore (including Rs.500 crore allocated to the Ministry of WCD in 2021-22 fiscal) allocated under Nirbhaya Fund, an amount of Rs 4366.89 crore has been disbursed/released by the
Ministries/Departments concerned for implementation of various projects/ schemes.”

The question comes at a time when Odisha has been seeing  steady rise in crime against women as per the facts put forth by NCRB:

In the past seven years, Odisha as seen a steady rise in the number of cases in this category. As per NCRB report, 3,232 such cases were lodged in Odisha in 2020, a 31.5% of the total cases lodged under the section in the entire country.

In 2019 too, Odisha topped the list of states with 2,818 cases while it was 2,538 in 2018. In 2017, the state saw 2,457 cases while in 2016, there were 2,107 cases. In 2015, a total of 1,957 cases were lodged while in 2014, the state police applied the section in 1,142 cases.