South Asia survivors of sexual violence struggle to access compensation, report finds

A new SAMAJ report says compensation schemes for survivors of sexual violence across South Asia are often underfunded, slow and hard to use, even where the law guarantees payment. The findings point to major gaps in Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and conflict-affected parts of Nepal, while India and Nepal offer models for reform.

Why it matters: - Sexual violence can cause immediate and long-term financial harm, including medical bills, transport costs, legal fees, relocation expenses and lost income. - Compensation is meant to help survivors recover, but many systems across South Asia fail before money reaches the people entitled to it. - The gaps push survivors toward debt, delay care and, in some cases, out of the formal justice system entirely.

What happened: - The South Asian Movement for Accessing Justice, or SAMAJ, released The Good Practices Paper on Compensation for Survivors of Sexual Violence in South Asia. - The report examines compensation schemes in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. - SAMAJ says survivors often face long criminal justice processes before compensation is available, along with low awareness, weak enforcement and delayed disbursement. - Where interim aid is unavailable, survivors may face a choice between an unaffordable legal process and an informal settlement.

The details: - In Pakistan, many survivors receive no compensation even after conviction because judges have broad discretion over whether to award it. - In Bangladesh, courts awarded compensation in just 6.8% of reviewed rape cases. - Bangladesh also lacks a national victim compensation fund. - Dalit and Adivasi women, Indigenous women, religious minorities and children born as a result of rape face additional barriers tied to discrimination, poverty and social exclusion. - Women with disabilities often face inaccessible information, police stations, courts and government offices. - In the Maldives, justice and support services are concentrated in Malé and a few urban centers, making access harder for people on outlying islands. - The Maldives also has limited public data on compensation awards, making it difficult to track whether survivors receive support. - Sri Lanka has a statutory Victims' Assistance and Protection Fund, but access remains uneven, especially for survivors in conflict-affected areas, Tamil communities and other marginalized groups. - In Nepal, survivors of the 1996-2006 civil war remain largely excluded from compensation because no legal mechanism for conflict-era reparations has been enacted.

Between the lines: - The report suggests compensation systems are often designed more like legal afterthoughts than survivor support tools. - SAMAJ argues that compensation tied to conviction leaves too many survivors waiting through slow investigations and trials for money they need immediately. - India and Nepal are presented as the region's strongest models because both recognize that compensation should not depend on a criminal conviction. - Nepal's Crime Victim Protection Act 2018 created a central Victim Relief Fund to pay compensation when offenders cannot. - India requires states to fund victim compensation schemes, uses Legal Services Authorities to process claims and has constitutional case law recognizing compensation as an enforceable right. - India's Supreme Court recently directed courts nationwide to consider compensation in all sexual offense cases after finding implementation gaps.

What's next: - SAMAJ is calling on South Asian governments, donors and civil society groups to create national victim compensation funds in Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Maldives. - The coalition wants interim disbursement systems so survivors can get emergency support for medical care, psychosocial services and transport right away. - SAMAJ also wants stronger enforcement of court-ordered compensation, annual public data on awards and payments, and standardized fund guidelines. - The group is urging governments to publish information in local languages and accessible formats. - SAMAJ is also calling for explicit reparations frameworks for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Nepal and Sri Lanka. - Manjula Pradeep of the National Council of Women Leaders said survivor compensation should become the standard, not the exception. - Divya Srinivasan of Equality Now, SAMAJ's secretariat and co-founder, said South Asian governments should legislate where laws are missing and fund and enforce them where they already exist.

The bottom line: - The report's core finding is blunt: legal guarantees do not equal real access, and survivors are still paying the price when compensation systems are slow, narrow or underfunded.