South Asian survivors struggle to access rape compensation

A new SAMAJ report says survivors of sexual violence across South Asia often cannot access legally guaranteed compensation because systems are underfunded, unevenly enforced and hard to navigate. The findings point to the need for emergency aid, stronger victim funds and clearer rules in countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India.

Why it matters: - Sexual violence can trigger immediate and long-term financial harm, including medical bills, counselling costs, transport, legal fees, relocation expenses and lost income. - When compensation is delayed or unavailable, survivors may be pushed into informal settlements, drop legal cases or go without basic support while pursuing justice. - The report says that gap is helping perpetrators avoid accountability and leaving many survivors without the help they are entitled to by law.

What happened: - The South Asian Movement for Accessing Justice, a coalition known as SAMAJ, released The Good Practices Paper on Compensation for Survivors of Sexual Violence in South Asia. - The report reviews compensation systems in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. - SAMAJ says many of those systems are underfunded, inconsistently applied and difficult for survivors to use.

The details: - Survivors often must move through lengthy police, court and administrative processes before compensation is considered. - Delays in investigations, trials and fund disbursement can leave survivors paying the cost of seeking justice themselves. - The report identifies low awareness among survivors and justice officials, low conviction rates and slow payment of awards as major barriers. - Where emergency support is missing, survivors may face pressure to accept out-of-court settlements. - SAMAJ says coerced settlements are widespread across South Asia. - In Pakistan, judges have broad discretion over compensation, and many survivors receive none even after a conviction. - 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 added barriers tied to discrimination, poverty and social exclusion. - Women with disabilities often face inaccessible information, buildings and procedures, while officials may not understand disability-related needs. - In the Maldives, services such as forensic exams, trained counsellors, shelters and legal aid are concentrated in Malé and a few other urban centres. - The Maldives’ island geography creates cost and logistics barriers to timely medical and forensic documentation. - Limited public data on compensation awards makes it hard to know whether survivors are actually receiving support. - Sri Lanka has a statutory Victims' Assistance and Protection Fund and a national authority mandated to oversee compensation for victims of crime. - 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 strongest models because their systems do not require a criminal conviction before compensation can be paid. - Nepal’s Crime Victim Protection Act 2018 consolidates victims’ rights into one law and creates a central Victim Relief Fund. - India requires states to fund victim compensation schemes, uses Legal Services Authorities to process claims, and treats compensation as an enforceable right under constitutional jurisprudence. - India’s Supreme Court recently directed courts nationwide to consider compensation in all sexual offence cases after finding implementation gaps. - Manjula Pradeep of the National Council of Women Leaders said a Dalit survivor in Uttar Pradesh used government grant assistance to leave home for safety, return to court and pursue a law degree.

Between the lines: - The report argues that compensation works best when it is treated as immediate survivor support, not as a reward dependent on conviction. - India and Nepal show that legal architecture matters, but implementation and access still determine whether survivors benefit in practice. - The findings also suggest geography, disability, caste, conflict history and language access shape who can actually claim relief.

What’s next: - SAMAJ is calling on Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Maldives to create national victim compensation funds that do not depend on criminal conviction. - The coalition wants interim payment mechanisms so survivors can get emergency help for medical care, psychosocial support and transport. - SAMAJ is also urging governments to strengthen enforcement of court-ordered compensation, publish annual data on awards and payments, and standardise fund guidelines. - The coalition says states should provide information and processes in local languages and accessible formats. - SAMAJ is calling for explicit reparations frameworks for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The bottom line: - South Asia has legal promises on compensation for sexual violence survivors, but the report says too many survivors still cannot access them when they need them most.