There is a mismatch between allocation for compensation to the survivors and the quantities offered through district criminal services authorities

1. Trafficking survivors
struggle to pay their bills
with only Rs 5,000 in
Bengal's fund

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. [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.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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,

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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,

18. 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.