Report says sexual violence survivors in South Asia face steep barriers to compensation

A new SAMAJ report finds that survivors of sexual violence across South Asia often cannot access the compensation they are legally entitled to because schemes are underfunded, slow and unevenly enforced. The findings span Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and call for stronger victim funds, faster interim support and clearer reparations for conflict-related abuse.

Why it matters: - Sexual violence can trigger major medical, legal, transport and relocation costs, along with lost income and reduced earning potential. - When compensation is delayed or inaccessible, survivors may be pushed into unsafe informal settlements or away from the formal justice system. - The report argues that financial redress is not optional support. It is part of survivor recovery and accountability.

What happened: - The South Asian Movement for Accessing Justice (SAMAJ) released The Good Practices Paper on Compensation for Survivors of Sexual Violence in South Asia. - The report examines compensation systems in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. - SAMAJ found that many schemes are underfunded, inconsistently implemented and difficult to navigate. - Survivors often must move through lengthy criminal justice processes before any compensation is paid. - Delays in investigations, trials and administrative steps can leave survivors covering the costs of pursuing justice themselves.

The details: - Survivors commonly need emergency medical care, counselling, transport, legal help and sometimes relocation after an assault. - The report identifies low awareness of compensation schemes among both survivors and justice officials. - Low conviction rates and slow disbursement of funds further block access to payments. - Where interim support is unavailable, survivors may face a choice between a costly legal case and an informal settlement under pressure. - Coerced out-of-court settlements are described as widespread across South Asia. - The report says the lack of emergency compensation can drive survivors away from formal justice and help perpetrators avoid accountability. - In Pakistan, judges have broad discretion over whether to award compensation after conviction, and many survivors receive none. - In Bangladesh, courts awarded compensation in just 6.8% of reviewed rape cases. - Bangladesh also does not have a national victim compensation fund. - Dalit and Adivasi women, Indigenous women, religious minorities and children born as a result of rape face extra barriers because of discrimination, poverty and social exclusion. - Women with disabilities often face inaccessible information, police stations, courts and government offices. - In the Maldives, forensic services, counsellors, shelters and legal aid are concentrated in Malé and a few other urban centres. - The Maldives’ island geography adds cost and logistics barriers to timely medical and forensic documentation. - Limited public data makes it hard to know whether compensation awards are reaching survivors in the Maldives. - Sri Lanka has a statutory Victims' Assistance and Protection Fund and a national authority structure on paper. - Access to support and compensation in Sri Lanka remains uneven, especially for survivors in conflict-affected areas, Tamil communities and other marginalised 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. - India and Nepal are presented as the region’s most developed models because compensation does not depend on a criminal conviction. - Nepal’s Crime Victim Protection Act 2018 consolidates victims’ rights and uses a central Victim Relief Fund to pay compensation when an offender cannot. - India combines state funding obligations, independent Legal Services Authorities and constitutional recognition of compensation as an enforceable right. - India’s Supreme Court recently directed courts nationwide to consider compensation in all sexual offence cases. - Manjula Pradeep of the National Council of Women Leaders said support can make the difference between abandoning a case and continuing it, citing a Dalit survivor in Uttar Pradesh who used government assistance to stay safe, return to court and pursue a law degree.

Between the lines: - The report frames compensation as a test of whether legal rights are real in practice, not just on paper. - India and Nepal show that compensation systems can work without tying payment to conviction, which is important in cases where criminal cases stall or fail. - The biggest gap across the region is not only law. It is implementation, funding and access. - Marginalised survivors are hit hardest because legal rights are filtered through geography, disability access, class and social discrimination.

What's next: - SAMAJ wants Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Maldives to create national victim compensation funds that pay survivors regardless of conviction. - The coalition is also calling for interim disbursement systems so survivors can get emergency money for medical care, psychosocial support and transport. - Governments are urged to enforce court-ordered compensation, publish annual data on awards and payments, and standardise fund rules. - SAMAJ also wants local-language and accessible-format information, plus explicit reparations frameworks for conflict-related sexual violence in Nepal and Sri Lanka. - Divya Srinivasan of Equality Now said governments should close the legal and enforcement gap so compensation becomes a reliable right, not a matter of geography.