South Asian survivors face barriers to sexual violence compensation

A new SAMAJ report says survivors of sexual violence across South Asia often cannot access compensation that laws already promise, because schemes are underfunded, slow and hard to navigate. The findings point to uneven protections in countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while India and Nepal are held up as stronger models.

Why it matters: - Sexual violence can trigger immediate medical, legal and travel costs, plus long-term losses in income, education and safety. - When compensation is delayed or unavailable, survivors can be pushed into informal settlements or out of the justice system altogether. - SAMAJ argues that reliable compensation is a practical safeguard, not an optional extra, because it helps survivors pursue care and legal action without taking on the full economic burden alone.

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 says many systems in the region are underfunded, inconsistently implemented and difficult to navigate. - The report says those failures leave many survivors unable to access financial assistance they are legally entitled to receive.

The details: - Survivors often face emergency costs for medical treatment, counselling, transport, legal help and sometimes relocation. - Many also lose wages, leave school or suffer reduced earning power after the abuse. - In several countries, survivors must move through lengthy criminal justice processes before compensation is considered. - Delays in investigations, trials and administrative steps can leave survivors paying the cost of seeking justice while getting little support. - The report identifies low awareness among survivors and justice officials, low conviction rates and slow fund disbursement as major barriers. - Where emergency support is missing, survivors may choose between an expensive legal case and an informal settlement under pressure. - Coerced out-of-court settlements remain widespread across South Asia. - SAMAJ says the absence of emergency compensation helps drive survivors away from formal justice and lets perpetrators avoid accountability. - 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 has no national victim compensation fund. - Dalit and Adivasi women, Indigenous women, religious minorities and children born as a result of rape face extra barriers tied to discrimination, poverty and social exclusion. - Women with disabilities face added obstacles when officials do not understand disability-related needs or when accessible information is missing. - Police stations, courts and government offices are not always physically accessible. - The Maldives faces special geographic barriers because it is an archipelago of about 200 inhabited islands. - Forensic services, trained counsellors, shelters and legal aid are concentrated in Malé and a few other urban centers. - Rapid reporting is often needed to preserve forensic evidence, but geography adds cost and logistics barriers. - Limited public data on compensation awards makes it hard to know whether compensation is reaching survivors in the Maldives. - Sri Lanka has a statutory Victims' Assistance and Protection Fund that requires a national authority to oversee implementation and pay compensation. - Even so, access to victim support and compensation 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. - India and Nepal are presented as the region's strongest models because both systems separate compensation from the need for a criminal conviction. - Nepal's Crime Victim Protection Act 2018 consolidates victims' rights and creates a central Victim Relief Fund that pays compensation when an offender cannot. - India combines state funding duties, 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 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. - Pradeep said that kind of support should become the standard, not the exception.

Between the lines: - The report frames compensation as a measure of access to justice, not just financial relief. - India and Nepal show that broader compensation systems can work without making survivors wait for a conviction, which matters in cases where trials drag on or never finish. - The gaps highlighted by SAMAJ suggest that legal rights alone do not guarantee access unless governments fund, simplify and publicize the process. - The focus on marginalized groups shows that compensation systems can deepen inequality when they do not account for caste, disability, geography and conflict history.

What's next: - SAMAJ is calling for national victim compensation funds in Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Maldives that do not depend on a criminal conviction. - The coalition also wants interim disbursement systems so survivors can get emergency help for medical care, psychosocial support and transport. - Governments are urged to strengthen enforcement of court-ordered compensation, publish annual data on awards and payments, and standardize fund guidelines. - SAMAJ also wants information and application processes available in local languages and accessible formats. - The coalition is urging explicit reparations frameworks for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The bottom line: - SAMAJ says South Asia's compensation laws are only as strong as the systems behind them, and too many survivors still cannot turn legal rights into real support.