New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has pulled up the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) for “gross underutilisation” of funds under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, POSHAN Abhiyaan and various other flagship schemes of the Narendra Modi government.
In its report tabled in Parliament Tuesday, the Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports has also asked for an action plan to be submitted by 30 June to curb rising cases of violence against women, and suggested that a bill be introduced to tackle the trafficking of women and children.
Underutilisation of funds
According to the report, there is not only underutilisation of funds granted for the WCD schemes, but these schemes have also not shown results on the ground.
“The Committee is of the opinion that the government is underutilizing its schemes and no results of these schemes were seen at the ground level.”
Noting “gross under utilisation of funds” under important schemes such as POSHAN Abhiyaan, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao etc, the report said “the benefits often do not reach the intended beneficiaries”.
The committee also noted that the ministry has started a trend of “saving” in its Demand for Grants documents, which it said has resulted in underutilisation of the funds. “For instance in 2019-20, ₹1500 Crore were ‘saved’ in Poshan Abhiyaan scheme, for One Stop Centre scheme, ₹274 Crore were provided and approximately ₹136 Crores i.e., 50% of the fund allocated were ‘saved’; in Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, ₹280 Crore were provided, and ₹194 Crore ‘saved’,” the panel’s report noted.
The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was launched in 2015 to address the declining child sex ratio and address other issues related to women’s empowerment. POSHAN Abhiyaan or the National Nutrition Mission was launched in March 2018 to address malnutrition in children and also focuses on adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
The committee recommended that the ministry utilise the funds allocated under various heads to the fullest extent and strive to achieve results.
“The outlook of the Ministry needs to change from outlays to outcomes and Ministry should be able to spend, execute and give measurable outcome-driven results, in the upcoming Financial Year,” the report said.
Violence against women
In view of the increasing cases of trafficking of women and children, the panel has recommended that the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill be introduced in the next session of Parliament.
The bill was discussed and passed in the monsoon session of the Lok Sabha in 2018. It was then placed before Rajya Sabha for consideration but could not be considered as both Houses of Parliament were prorogued and the bill then lapsed on the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha in 2019.
The panel has noted that according to data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), trafficking incidents increased from 6,877 in 2015 to 6,993 in 2019.
In view of the rising incidents of crime against women, the panel asked the ministry “to evolve a mechanism through coordination with various field agencies to minimize the response time to distress calls from women” and draw up an action plan to be submitted by 30 June.
The panel also noted that the Mahila Police Volunteer Scheme, one of the main pillars of the Nirbhaya Fund, has only been implemented in five states even though the scheme was approved for 13 states.
The scheme envisages the engagement of mahila police volunteers in states/UTs who act as a link between police and community, and helps women in distress. “MPVs should be deployed in the remaining 8 States, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas, so as to curb crimes against women and to supplement the existing law enforcement agencies,” the report said.
The panel also recommended that sexual harassment cases in the corporate sector should find mention in the annual report of the National Commission for Women (NCW). it also recommended conducting gender sensitisation for men and media protocol regarding the depiction of women should also be framed.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mazumdar)
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