New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS): To ensure dignity and safety of women, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Monday allocated an additional Rs.1,000 crore for the Nirbhaya Fund that was announced last fiscal.

"Last year, I had made three promises and I had asked members to keep before them the faces of the girl child, the young student, and the poor. To ensure the dignity and safety of women, I promised the Nirbhaya Fund and put Rs.1,000 crore into the fund.

"So far, we have approved two proposals that will receive support from the fund. In order to make it clear that the fund will be a permanent fund, I intend to declare the grant of Rs.1,000 crore as non-lapsable.

"And in order to support more proposals, I propose to contribute to the fund another sum of Rs.1,000 crore next year," Chidambaram said in the Lok Sabha while presenting the interim budget.

The Nirbhaya Fund was announced last fiscal by Chidambaram as a tribute to a 23-year-old woman who was gang-raped in a moving bus by five men and a minor. The incident had sparked nation wide protests, forcing the government to announce a slew of safety measures for women.

Nirbhaya or fearless was the pseudonym given by the media to the victim to hide her actual identity.

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