Supreme Court pulls center for disarray in Nirbhaya Scheme

September 23, 2017

Ten year old rape survivor who recently gave birth to a child, has still not received a compensation of Rs 9 lakh from Central Victim Compensation Fund under Nirbhaya scheme. The money is supposed to be put in a fixed deposit and meant to take care of her medical treatment, psychological well-being and education. It was a part of total sum of Rs. 10 lakh awarded by the Supreme Court while denying her abortion. Till now, her family has received only Rs. 1 lakh for compensation. Supreme Court on friday found that the Chandigarh case was only example of the “ utter confusion and unhappy state of affairs” over the compensation disbursal to the sexual assault victims under Nirbhaya scheme initiated in the year 2013 following the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi. The Bench lead by Justice Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta recorded that “ there is a lot of confusion” among the 3 Ministries Home affairs, Finance and Women and Child Development about their responsibilities related to the scheme. Centre has issued Rs. 200 crore to every State for compensating the victims of sexual assault under the Nirbhaya fund scheme, the court's amicus curiae, senior advocate Indira Jaising said. Referring to an affidavit filed by the Home Ministry, Ms. Jaising pointed out that Centre never took any feedback from the State governments asking how the Nirbhaya funds have been spent. Ms. Jaising added that some States have utilised the money on installing CCTV cameras and others “ paraphernalia” instead of using it to compensate the victims of sexual assault and abuse. The court referred to the affidavit filed by Home Ministry, which showed “ anomalies” like disbursal of Rupees 2.48 crore by Jharkhand government to sexual assault victims, but the column showing number of victims was empty. Similarly, Delhi has distributed rupees 4.29 crore to the victims, but the column was blank. The Chandigarh administration has also disbursed 38 lakh Rupees to only one victim in 2015-16 and rupees 21.5 lakh to 4 victims in the year 2016-17. Goa administration has disbursed Rupees 3 lakh to one victim in 2017-18. Tamil Nadu compensated rupees 35.5 lakh to 27 victims of sexual assault in 2016-17. “ The money remains in the States' kitty. There is no uniformity in disbursal of compensation to victims or when to pay them or how much to pay them... In Chandigarh, compensation is paid to the sexual assault victim only after the conviction of accused. Whereas in Delhi, compensation is paid on Station House Officer's request... Is this what child sex abuse victims or rape survivors should be put through after the trauma they have undergone?” Ms. Indira Jaising asked the court. Court should make sure that the compensation is disbursed at the time of the complaint filed by the rape victims. “ Because that is the time when they need it the most,” Ms. Jaising submitted in her report. The court pulled up the Centre, saying “ you should have at least been conscious of the fact that there is a problem (with Nirbhaya scheme). You should have been pro-active. You are the person making the pay-out, you should have ensured that they (States) are paying compensation to them (victims)” .