South Asia survivors struggle to get sexual violence compensation

A new SAMAJ report says survivors of sexual violence across South Asia often cannot access compensation they are legally owed because systems are underfunded, slow and hard to use. The findings point to wider gaps in enforcement, with India and Nepal offering the strongest regional models and Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Maldives facing major coverage gaps.

Why it matters: - Sexual violence can leave survivors with immediate medical, legal and transport costs, plus lost income, reduced earnings and long-term displacement. - Compensation is meant to help cover those harms, but SAMAJ says many survivors in South Asia still cannot get the support they are entitled to. - The gap pushes some survivors toward informal settlements and away from formal justice processes.

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 compares compensation systems in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. - SAMAJ found that compensation schemes are often underfunded, inconsistently implemented and difficult to navigate. - The report says survivors often must move through lengthy criminal justice processes before compensation is available.

The details: - Delays in investigations, trials and administrative steps can leave survivors paying the costs of justice while waiting for aid. - Low awareness among survivors and justice officials, low conviction rates and slow fund disbursement are additional barriers. - Where interim support is unavailable, survivors may choose between a costly legal case and an informal settlement under pressure. - The report says coerced out-of-court settlements remain widespread across South Asia. - In Pakistan, many survivors receive no compensation even after a conviction because judges have broad discretion over whether to award it. - In Bangladesh, courts awarded compensation in only 6.8% of reviewed rape cases, and the country has no national victim compensation fund. - Dalit and Adivasi women, Indigenous women, religious minorities and children born as a result of rape face added barriers tied to discrimination, poverty and exclusion. - Women with disabilities often encounter inaccessible information, inaccessible government sites and officials who do not understand disability-related needs. - In the Maldives, compensation access is shaped by geography across about 200 inhabited islands, with most forensic, counselling, shelter and legal aid services concentrated in Malé and a few other urban centers. - The island layout makes timely medical and forensic documentation harder and more expensive. - Sri Lanka has a statutory Victims' Assistance and Protection Fund, but access to services and compensation remains uneven, especially for survivors in conflict-affected areas and Tamil communities. - In Nepal, survivors of the 1996-2006 civil war remain largely excluded from compensation because no conflict-era reparation mechanism has been enacted. - The report says India and Nepal have the region's strongest models because compensation does not depend on a criminal conviction. - Nepal's Crime Victim Protection Act 2018 consolidated victims' rights and created a central Victim Relief Fund to pay compensation when offenders cannot. - India's framework requires states to fund victim compensation schemes, uses Legal Services Authorities to assess claims and treats compensation as an enforceable right under constitutional jurisprudence. - India's Supreme Court recently told courts nationwide to consider compensation in all sexual offence cases after finding implementation failures. - Manjula Pradeep of the National Council of Women Leaders said a Dalit survivor in Uttar Pradesh was able to leave home for safety, return to court and pursue a law degree after receiving government grant assistance. - Divya Srinivasan of Equality Now, the secretariat and co-founder of SAMAJ, said no survivor should face different odds for the same right to compensation.

Between the lines: - The report frames compensation as more than a financial issue. It is a test of whether legal rights actually work for survivors. - The findings suggest that conviction-linked systems can fail most when survivors most need immediate help. - Regional disparities also show how geography, disability, caste, ethnicity and conflict history shape access to justice. - India and Nepal stand out because they show compensation can be structured as a right rather than a reward tied to conviction.

What's next: - SAMAJ is calling on 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 money for medical care, psychosocial support and transport right away. - SAMAJ is also urging stronger enforcement of court-ordered compensation, annual public reporting on awards and payments, and standardised fund guidelines. - The report calls for local-language and accessible-format information, plus explicit reparations frameworks for conflict-related sexual violence in Nepal and Sri Lanka. - SAMAJ says governments should legislate where laws are missing and fund and enforce them where they already exist.

The bottom line: - South Asia has compensation laws on paper, but many survivors of sexual violence still cannot use them when it matters most.