Lok Sabha Question No. 3601 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-21
Subject: Nirbhaya Fund Utilization
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Shri P C Mohan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3601

TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.03.2025

## NIRBHAYA FUND UTILIZATION

## 3601.  SHRI P C MOHAN:

Will the Minister of Women and Child Development be pleased to state:

- (a) the  details  of  the  specific  measures  being  implemented  under  the  Nirbhaya Fund  to  enhance  the  safety  of  women  using  public  transport  in  Bengaluru, including metro and BMTC buses;
- (b) whether the Government has allocated funds for gender-sensitization training for  police  personnel  and  public  transport  staff  to  better  handle  cases  of harassment and violence, if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) whether there is any mechanism to track and publicly report the expenditure and impact of the Nirbhaya Fund on women's safety initiatives in Bengaluru, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR)

(a)  &  (b):  In  order  to  ensure  the  safety  and  security  of  women  and  girls  in  public transport  in  Bengaluru,  the Bengaluru  Metropolitan  Transport Corporation (BMTC), Government  of  Karnataka  is  implementing  a  project  under  Nirbhaya  Fund,  which includes Women  Lounges at important bus stations, Gender Sensitization and women safety   protocol   training  for  ground  staff,  Sarathi  Squads/  Mobile  Police  Patrol Vehicles, Advocacy, advertisement and Awareness Campaign on Women's safety, Training women for Heavy passenger Vehicle (HPV) and Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) licenses, CCTV Surveillance cameras for 1000 buses, Mobile application to improve functionalities on women safety and Passenger  information Display in Bus Stops. As per the information provided by BMTC, 18 women lounges have been completed in BMTC bus terminals, a total of 27000 staff have been trained, web tool design and dash board work has been completed and pilot run deployed at 2 depots for testing of Gender  Sensitisation  Assessment  Tool.  Self  defence  training  for  2773  women employees have been conducted, 25 patrol vehicles and 11 Light Motor Vehicles have been deployed, installation of 1213 Automatic Tracking Device (ATD). Panic Buttons and Mobile Network Video Recorder (mNVR) installed in 5000 vehicles. 2426 CCTVs and PIS display System- 5 have been done. The 'NAMMA BMTC' Mobile application with  women  safety  feature  has  been  developed  and  launched  on  25 th   September 2023. 500 Passenger Information Display boards have been installed in bus stops and buses.

Under the Safe City Projects implemented in 8 Cities, Bengaluru city is also included. In Bengaluru Safe City project, in order to ensure safety of public places where women work and live, poles has been installed at 100 locations with camera feed from 8 locations received at Command Centre. Critical Care Response Unit has been setup in 8 leading Government Hospitals and 4 Mobile Forensic vans has been procured. Further, to ensure that the Police Stations are more women  friendly and approachable, as they would be the first and single point of contact for any woman walking into a police station, 14658 Women Help Desks (WHDs) have been set up across the country, of which 13743 are headed by women police officers. Out of these, 1050 WHDs have been set up in Karnataka alone. (c):  An  Empowered  Committee  (EC)  of  officers  constituted  under  Framework  for Nirbhaya Fund appraises and recommends the proposals for funding under Nirbhaya Fund.  After  appraisal  by  the  EC,  the  Ministries/  Departments  concerned  obtain approval of their respective competent financial authorities to release funds out of their respective budgets and implement the approved projects/ schemes directly or through States/ UTs/ Implementing Agencies, State/ UT-wise. The EC also reviews the implementation of approved projects/ schemes in conjunction with the concerned Ministries/  Departments/  Implementing  Agencies  (IAs).  In  addition,  the  Ministries/ Departments/ IAs also monitor the implementation of projects/ schemes at their level.

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