The Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Ms. Maneka Gandhi has reportedly decided to set up a POCSO Victims Compensation Fund to provide financial support to children who are victims of sexual crimes.

The announcement was made as a response to a letter seeking her attention to the plight of a three-year old, who was allegedly sexually assaulted and found abandoned at a railway station in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.

The Fund will draw financial resources from the Nirbhaya Fund. A ‘ChildLine’ has also been put in motion to take care of the child, and assist the concerned officer in tracing the parents.

The Nirbhaya Fund was set up by the Government in its 2013 Union Budget with a corpus of Rs. 1,000 crore. According to then Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, this fund was expected to support initiatives by the Government and NGOs working towards protecting the dignity and ensuring safety of women in India.

The Women and Child Development Ministry was made the nodal agency for Nirbhaya Fund in April, 2015, replacing the Home Ministry, which had utilized only one percent of the funds.