SLSA has disbursed ₹15.81 crore to victims and their families over six years
SLSA has disbursed ₹15.81 crore to victims and their families over six years
Between April 2016 and March 2022, the State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) has compensated 587 victims of sexual assault and acid attacks under the West Bengal Victims Compensation Scheme 2017. In six years, SLSA has disbursed ₹15.81 crore to the victims and their families.
A closer look at the compensation awarded to cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012 (POCSO), 354 (60%) of all cases for which compensation has been paid. This is followed by compensation for acid attack survivors, which has been awarded to 139 individuals and accounts for 23% of all compensation cases.
In the last six years, 26 survivors of human trafficking and 26 survivors of rape were also provided compensation under the Victims Compensation Scheme.
Sukumar Mandal, Registrar-cum-Deputy Secretary, SLSA said that the compensation under West Bengal Victim Compensation Scheme 2017 is given after SLSA completes all the necessary procedures. The funds for compensation are made available to the SLSA by the Government of West Bengal and as per the registrar, the SLSA tries to distribute the funds to the beneficiaries whenever funds are available. Mr Mandal said that another ₹48 lakh is being given as compensation to the victims by the end of April.
Under the West Bengal Victims Compensation Scheme 2017, compensation is given under 11 categories, the lowest being ₹50,000 and the highest ₹3 lakh. A gazette notification issued by the state government in February 2017 said, “If the age of the victim is below 14 years, the compensation will be increased by 50% of the amount mentioned above.”
Recently, the Calcutta High Court has intervened in several cases of sexual harassment and directed at least two women IPS officers to oversee the investigation into six allegations of sexual harassment.
During the hearing of rape cases in the Calcutta High Court, a division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj had pointed out on April 19 that most of the rape cases involved minors.
The process of victim compensation can be tedious and sometimes it can take years. In many cases the victims and survivors sought compensation at the intervention of the Calcutta High Court. Two orders of the Calcutta High Court passed in the year 2018 in human trafficking cases are considered important for victim compensation.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, in his order dated July 25, 2018, had said, “Deprivation of compensation to such victim would continue to cause such violation and would amount to gross inhumanity to the victim.” In another order on July 5, 2018, a division bench of Justice Ravi Krishna Kapoor and Justice Jomalya Bagchi suggested provision of interim compensation for victims immediately after recording their statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Was. These orders have had far-reaching effects.
While 26 survivors of human trafficking have been honored, local organizations working with trafficking survivors in the state reported that about 17 survivors have been waiting for compensation for nearly a year and a half after the order was passed.
Earlier this month on April 9, at a conference on “Raising Awareness on Human Trafficking and Child Welfare” organized by the Calcutta High Court and SLSA, which was attended by senior judges of the Supreme Court.
Justice Indira Banerjee of the Supreme Court of India, speaking at the conference, said perhaps the time has come to think of amending the law to deal with cases where complaints are filed at the behest of third parties, even. That in fact there are not even parties involved. in relation. “Similarly, what is in the welfare of the child, what are the rights of the child and what is child abuse, are complex issues which are often over-simplified…,” Justice Banerjee said.
Supreme Court Justice UU Lalit, who is also the acting chairman of NALSA (National Legal Services Authority), suggested that there are a large number of para legal volunteers and some of them may be converted into “protection assistants”, who can be monitored. and can bring children (under the age of 18) out of the trap of human trafficking.