A Parliamentary committee has expressed anguish at the tardy progress in the implementation of a scheme to compensate victims of sexual offences, saying the government has made "no sincere and visible" efforts in this regard.
The Committee on Empowerment of Women in its report on 'Victims of sexual abuse and trafficking and their rehabilitation' has come down heavily on the Centre saying, "No sincere and visible efforts have been made by the government to ensure that the Victim Compensation Scheme is implemented by all the states and Union Territories."
The panel said it is "flabbergasted" that despite new sections being added to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) dealing with compensation for the victims, little effort has been made to implement it.
"The committee are exasperated by the fact that if the states and the UTs do not have the requisite apparatus in the form of Victim Compensation Scheme, how women and girls, who are victims of sexual abuse and other forms of crimes, would be able to get structured and effective relief from the government," the report said.
The panel urged the Centre to ask the states to implement the scheme at the earliest.
So far, only 16 states and UTs have formulated the Victim Compensation Scheme. The crimes that are contemplated to be covered under the scheme include rape, severe mental agony, loss of life, grievous hurt and loss of limb, the report said.
Section 357 of the CrPC enables courts to award compensation to victims of various crimes, including rape, molestation and eve teasing.
Following amendments to the CrPC in 2009 and 2013, new sections were introduced which cast responsibility on the states to formulate a compensation scheme to rehabilitate victims in coordination with the Centre.