West Bengal's State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) is not able to compensate survivors of heinous crimes together with trafficking, rape and acid attack, as mandated, as it has most effective Rs five,000 left in its account. This became found out to the Calcutta High Court by an SLSA legal professional on July 30, 2021 whilst it changed into hearing a case related to the non-price of a Rs 4-lakh repayment provided to a trafficking survivor in 2019.
The petitioner's case is not any exception. Consider the subsequent times:
In August 2021, 29 survivors of human trafficking wrote to chief minister Mamata Banerjee complaining about non-payment of repayment. The District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) in North-24 Parganas and South-24 Parganas had offered all of them sums ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 6.5 lakh. Though five were ordered repayment in 2019, sixteen in 2020-21 and 8 in 2021, none of them has been paid but. The letter talked about that the SLSA become claiming fund scarcity to explain the put off in charge.
Another non-governmental company (NGO) running with trafficking survivors, which desires to remain nameless, told IndiaSpend that sixty six trafficking survivors associated with the 25 instances that it monitored in West Bengal were presented repayment due to the fact that 2017. However, best one has been paid. Another 13 survivors have been presented period in-between compensation pertaining to 9 cases. Only had been paid until cease-August.
Zarina Khatoon (call changed), who turned into trafficked at the age of 20 in 2016, had applied for repayment on September 18, 2018, and changed into provided Rs four lakh as repayment in September 2019. She is but to be paid.
The Victim Compensation Fund, set up by using states under the Centre's route, is earmarked for survivors of all violent crimes that require rehabilitation. However, in this investigation, we recognition on survivors of human trafficking because it's far rampant in the nation, as we establish later.
Trafficked girls are forced into prostitution and frequently again and again raped in captivity, in line with activist agencies. They are also frequently ostracised with the aid of their network, making rehabilitation tough.
After all this, awaiting up to 3 years for repayment is distressing, survivors told us. What hobbles this scheme launched with the aid of the West Bengal authorities in 2017? Our investigation discovered a critical hole among the amount offered as repayment and the cash the country allocates for the cause.
West Bengal has been a main source nation for human trafficking: In 2013, 2014 and 2015, the kingdom recorded 18.Five%, or three,020 of the 16,283 such cases stated countrywide. The kingdom accounted for one-tenth of India's trafficking instances in 2017 and 2018. The 2016 facts had certain anomalies and had been objected to by the state authorities.
Asked about the repayment grievances, a senior minister in the nation government refused to respond however brought: "The fund comes from the department of home and hill affairs of which the leader minister herself is in fee. None except her will speak in this."
Fund now not enough to compensate
The kingdom is meant to make a budgetary allocation for the compensation fund, and the secretary of the SLSA is designated because the authority that operates the price range and makes bills. But the fund is now almost empty: The West Bengal SLSA had written to the state authorities on June 17, 2021 soliciting for budget, however became yet to get hold of any until August 10, the authority knowledgeable the Calcutta High Court in the case mentioned in advance.
The West Bengal finances record for 2019-20 shows that the real spending beneath the 'Compensation Under the Victim Compensation Scheme' became Rs three crore, while the state's District Legal Services Authorities (DLSAs) had presented Rs four.44 crore in repayment in that financial yr.
Between April 2016 and March 2020, the DLSAs provided Rs 10.25 crore as repayment, but the authorities had spent only Rs nine.11 crore on the fund until March 2020. Between April 2016 and March 2019, the DLSA presented compensation totalling Rs five.Eight crore. (The finances files we tested do now not have any references prior to 2018-19 for the reason that scheme in Bengal become launched in 2017.) In 2018-19, the actuals spent stood at Rs 6.11 crore, Rs 31 lakh extra than what had been offered until the give up of March 2019.
In 2020-21, the DLSAs have awarded a complete of Rs 3.23 crore as reimbursement, at the same time as the revised kingdom estimate for the fund for the corresponding yr was Rs 3.03 crore.
"It takes superb courage and resolution on the part of a trafficking survivor to stand the scrutiny of her narrative and the stigma associated with it to get the reimbursement provided within the first place. Such postpone in being paid thereafter is demoralising, to say the least," stated Rokeya Khan (name changed), who is in her early 20s.
Khan, who turned into abducted and trafficked into prostitution at age 13 in 2012, escaped a brothel in Pune's Budhwar Peth place with the help of a client in 2017. She later observed the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department's anti-human trafficking unit to Pune to help perceive the traffickers. This led to the arrest of four men from throughout West Bengal and Maharashtra.
Khan was awarded repayment a yr after she applied, on December eight, 2020, however she has but to be paid. Few trafficking survivors pursue the felony procedure to justice as keenly as Khan, said individuals of the NGO, Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra (GGBK), that assisted her. Khan is presently running with a survivors' collective, Bandhan Mukti, in South 24-Parganas district.
Most survivors are poor, marginalised
A 2020 look at backed by means of the National Human Rights Commission noted that "prostitution became the key reason [of trafficking] in West Bengal" and that a large majority of the state's trafficking survivors earned much less than Rs 5,000 a month. "They mainly belong to SCs [Scheduled Castes] and STs [Scheduled Tribes]," stated the file.
State repayment for survivors of heinous crimes turned into made viable by way of rules based totally on the recommendation of the Justice V. S.
Malimath-led Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System in 2003. The panel said it turned into the nation's obligation to compensate a sufferer, irrespective of whether or not the perpetrator is apprehended, convicted or acquitted, and endorsed that a sufferer compensation fund be set up.
Subsequently, in 2008, the Code of Criminal Procedure became amended to insert section 357A, the provisions of which require states to put together their personal victim repayment schemes. The DLSAs and SLSAs are required to award compensation following the tips of the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA).
The gadget surely started functioning after the Central government notified, on October 14, 2015, the establishment of the Central Victim Compensation Fund Scheme. It additionally requested the states on July 13, 2016, to inform their own victim reimbursement schemes.
West Bengal, thereafter, replaced its Victim Compensation Scheme of 2012, which provided a most amount of Rs 20,000 as reimbursement for rape, with the new Victim Compensation Scheme of 2017. The minimal reimbursement for rape turned into set at Rs 3 lakh, as in line with critical authorities hints.
State gets handiest 2% of all applications
An analysis of the data on reimbursement and trafficking tendencies display that West Bengal, which accounted for 7.Fifty four% of India's population in 2011, had recorded 10.3% of India's general human trafficking instances in 2017 and 2018 (The state did not share 2019 statistics with the NCRB). But the kingdom's compensation report become poor in assessment to its crime file.
Between April 2018 and March 2021, West Bengal received only 2.Three% of the total packages for reimbursement inside the united states (1,0.5 of forty six,249) and the repayment offered made handiest 1.99% (Rs 10.Fifty five crore) of the full amount (Rs 529.Four crore) offered in the usa, as in step with NLSA.
The fund is also meant for survivors of other forms of atrocities, other than trafficking, as we said. There is a particular tenet for acid assault survivors--they have to be paid Rs 1 lakh inside 15 days from being pronounced to the DLSA, and the rest Rs 2 lakh "undoubtedly" inside months of that. But there's no timeline for victims of human trafficking or rape.
In 2018, West Bengal recorded India's highest range of acid attack instances--50 of 228 instances nationally, around 22%. These 50 cases involved 53 survivors, 38 of whom have been women. But human trafficking is a far bigger trouble inside the country, as information display. In 2018, the nation recorded 172 cases of human trafficking involving 262 survivors.
IndiaSpend emailed the state domestic secretary for a response however none turned into obtained till the night time of September 6. The story could be updated together with his response if we acquire it.
Why few are searching for repayment
The survivors' warfare does no longer end even after the order for compensation is given, reports of the survivors monitor. In the letter to the chief minister, participants of three trafficking survivors' collectives, Bandhan Mukti, Utthan and Bijoyini, that collectively have about one hundred fifty participants, stated that getting an order for repayment itself intended undergoing the stressful revel in of retelling their testimonies again and again before the police and the DLSA.
"After my rescue, I became almost ostracised by means of my personal village," said Suchitra Shikari (name changed), who carried out for the compensation on May 3, 2018. "I sought assist from the neighborhood panchayat and other administrative officers however none heeded. I become even told that simply due to the fact I were trafficked I turned into not entitled to any privilege. Then, NGO employees helped me observe to the DLSA. Getting the repayment offered changed into itself hard enough a struggle." She changed into offered Rs 4 lakh as reimbursement--Rs 1 lakh for human trafficking and Rs three lakh for rape--on December eight, 2020.
NGO people engaged in anti-trafficking activities said there are multiple motives why few survivors in West Bengal apply for reimbursement. In states like Bihar, Odisha and Rajasthan, a massive variety of human trafficking survivors are men rescued from bonded labour. But in West Bengal, most of the trafficking survivors are women rescued from prostitution: ninety three.15% (735 of 789) of rescued trafficking sufferers from West Bengal in 2017 and 2018 had been girls and women, as in keeping with the NCRB records.
"We must understand that trafficking survivors, mainly ladies, are sufferers of many betrayals. They do no longer have a tendency to agree with humans effortlessly. Revealing what they underwent before any authority is a mentally disturbing project for them," said Subhasree Raptan, who works with the Goranbose Gram Bikas Kendra that works towards prevention, rescue and rehabilitation of human trafficking survivors in South 24-Parganas district. Many survivors tend not to pursue the criminal struggle, she stated.
There are also problems associated with documentation. Raptan cited the instance of a minor from South 24-Parganas who have been trafficked to Maharashtra and had her Aadhaar card registered in Maharashtra by means of the offenders. All those files had to be changed to reflect her actual identification earlier than the legal procedure could start. Several others had no identification card of any type; a few had been college dropouts with no documents indicating their educational qualification.
Shambhu Nanda, the programme coordinator at Partners for Anti-Trafficking, an umbrella of eight NGOs operating towards human trafficking inside the district of North 24-Parganas, stated the lack of understanding defined why few survivors practice for repayment. "We have come upon numerous survivors who had been rescued extra than a 12 months ago but neither the police nor refuge home authorities informed them about the reimbursement scheme," Nanda stated.
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