Supreme Court shocked to find Madhya Pradesh government disbursing meagre Rs. 6500 to rape victims

The Apex Court was taken aback by the decision of the Madhya Pradesh government to disburse a petty amount of Rs. 6,000- 6,500 to the rape survivor on an average basis. A bench saw the whole matter as an extreme case of insensitiveness by the State government which receives the maximum fund under the Nirbhaya Fund Scheme from the Centre. The Court questioned whether the Madhya Pradesh government values the rape of a woman at meager 6500 and found it & lsquo shocking' that the state had only disbursed Rs. 1 crore to its 1951 rape victims. The bench comprising of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta was hearing a matter wherein all the States and the Union Territories were directed to file an Affidavit regarding the number of sexual assaults, the amount received by them under the Nirbhaya Scheme and the amount disbursed by them to the victims in their respective states. The court also slammed the states and Union territories who haven't filed the affidavit as of yet. It must be noted that the Nirbhaya Fund Scheme was announced by the Centre in 2013 as a measure to support the initiatives of governments and the NGOs for the safety of women in the respective states and Union Territories. A hefty fund was allocated to each state government and UT's for the same. The Centre had stated that it was finding difficult to cooperate with the states in disbursing the amount to the rape victims under the Nirbhaya Fund Scheme. The bench painfully expressed that despite all the talks, discussions on gender justice 24 States and the Union Territories have not filed the Affidavit. It has given a time of & lsquo 4 weeks' to all the States and UT's to file the Affidavit & lsquo if they were interested' in the safety of women.