Under the new scheme, if a woman victim of sexual crimes is covered under more than one category, she’ll be entitled to a combined compensation for all categories.
New Delhi: Following the Supreme Court directions earlier this month to increase the compensation given to victims of sexual assault by up to 80 per cent, the women and child development ministry has written to all states to implement the scheme with immediate effect.
Under a new scheme titled ‘Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault/Other Crimes, 2018’, families of victims will be now given a compensation of up to Rs 10 lakh, as opposed to Rs 2 lakh given under the Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) scheme — which has now been rendered defunct for all practical purposes.
For rape, the compensation has been increased to Rs 4-7 lakh from Rs 3 lakh; for loss of fetus in the course of a sexual assault or other atrocities, the compensation has been increased to Rs 2-3 lakh from Rs 50,000.
Further, in contrast to the earlier provisions under the CVCF, if a woman victim of sexual attack is covered under more than one category of crimes, she would be entitled to a combined compensation under various categories. For example, if a woman is raped and rendered physically disabled in the course of the attack, she would be entitled to a compensation of Rs 4-7 lakh under rape compensation rules and Rs 3-8 lakh under acid attack compensation rules.
Last year, the Supreme Court had noted that the disbursal of the CVCF to sexual assault victims was lamentable.
The CVCF scheme was only launched in 2015 by the home ministry under the Nirbhaya Scheme with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore. This year, a paltry sum of Rs 20 crore was released by the government to states and union territories.
A range of crimes and atrocities that were not compensated under the CVCF have also been covered under the new scheme. Victims of gang rape would be entitled to a compensation of Rs 5-10 lakh, while women who become pregnant due to rape would be given a compensation of up to Rs 3-4 lakh.
The scheme, proposed by the National Legal Services Authority, was approved by the Supreme Court earlier this month. However, the two-judge bench of justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta which approved the plan had said the scheme would not preclude state governments from giving a higher compensation than the one mandated.