A trafficking survivor has been granted a victim compensation of ₹13.5 lakh by the Bengal’s State Legal Services Authority.
Lawyers and social workers said such a big compensation amount was rare in trafficking cases.
The money granted to the survivor is an “interim compensation”, the SLSA order, dated January 14, said.
At the age of 13, the resident of Canning in South 24-Parganas was trafficked by men she knew, her lawyer said.
She was taken to Delhi and sold at a brothel before being rescued a month later, he added.
The survivor was earlier granted a victim compensation of ₹3 lakh by the District Legal Services Authority of South 24-Parganas.
That was in 2019.
But she refused the amount and challenged the order in the SLSA.
“The appellant’s statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC (on December 24 2018) gives the unmistakable, albeit prima facie, impression that she had been trafficked and then sexually and commercially exploited on a continuous basis,” said the SLSA order.
“The psychological assessment report (dated May 20, 2019) corroborates to a great extent the appellant’s canvassed plight.
“The impugned order by the DLSA did not consider these aspects of the matter,” the order said.
The survivor’s lawyer hailed her spirit.
“It was a long and arduous journey. She comes from an extremely poor family. For her, it was not easy to reject ₹3 lakh and challenge the previous order.
“In these five years, there were moments of frustration. But she overcame them,” said Debayan Sen, who fought her case.
“The DLSA order did not consider that she was under 14. The minimum prescribed amount was given to her. Considering the delicate age of the survivor, the gravity of the crime and the complete violation of her body and mind, the SLSA increased the amount,” said Sen.
The SLSA is the custodian of the corpus created by the Bengal government for
disbursal of funds — under the West Bengal Victim Compensation Scheme, created in 2012 — to compensate survivors of offences like rape, acid attacks and human trafficking.
The daughter of a farm labourer, the survivor was allegedly trafficked with the lure of a job in Calcutta in late 2018.
“She was brought to Howrah station and bundled onto a train to Delhi. She was sold to a brothel in Delhi where she was subjected to commercial sexual exploitation for days,” said Amina Laskar of Bansra Birangana Seba Samiti, an organisation that works to rehabilitate trafficking survivors.
The survivor’s father filed a police complaint on November 12, 2018. She was rescued in a police raid a month later.
The case was initially being probed by local police.
Following a petition in Calcutta High Court, the investigation was transferred to the anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) of state police in 2019.
A chargesheet was filed in 2022.
The chargesheet named three men who were charged with sections 363 (abduction), 370 (human trafficking) of the erstwhile Indian penal Code and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act 2012.
“One of the accused has been arrested. Two others are absconding,” Sen said.
The trial is underway at the Pocso court in Alipore.
The survivor was provided legal assistance by Tafteesh, a platform of researchers, lawyers, psychologists and survivors of human trafficking.
She is married and the mother of a three-year-old girl now.
She earns some money by embroidery of saris, said Amina, her mentor.
The survivor also organises monthly meetings and works to prevent child marriage and domestic violence.