Fourteen women, all survivors of human trafficking, received hope when they were awarded victim compensation.
But the hope is gradually turning to frustration because the money has not been credited to their bank accounts yet.
Four of the women had the compensation awarded in 2020. The oldest order is dated February 24, 2020.
The most recent order was passed on November 7 last year.
On February 19, an NGO representing the 14 women wrote a letter to the National Legal Services Authority, urging speedy disbursal.
The letter mentioned that multiple letters to the State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) — the custodians of the victim compensation corpus — failed to yield results.
This newspaper has in the past reported more than once on the long gap between the compensation order being passed and the money actually being credited to the bank account of a survivor.
More than once, the legal authorities attributed the delay to a cash crunch.
The West Bengal Victim Compensation Scheme, 2017, was set up to give interim compensation to “the victim or his dependants who have suffered loss or injury as a result of crime and who require rehabilitation”.
In practise, victims of human trafficking, sexual assault and acid attacks are among those entitled to compensation under this scheme, said lawyers.
The orders of victim compensation for the 14 survivors had been passed by the South-24 Parganas District Legal Services Authority (DLSA).
An advocate who has represented many trafficking survivors said in case of any delay in payment of the victim compensation, the survivor is entitled to get interest.
“In case of any delay, the survivor is entitled to a suitable interest along with the actual amount. Calcutta High Court has clearly said that in an order, directing payment of interest at the prevalent market rate along with the principal amount,” said Kaushik Gupta, who practises at the high court.
One of the 14 women mentioned in the letter is a 32-year-old. She was 25 when allegedly trafficked to a brothel in Pune. That was July 2018. She was lured by the promise of an “easy loan”.
She was rescued after four months.
“A case has been lodged at Basanti police station. The trial is in the evidence-collection stage at a fast-track court in Alipore. Three accused had been arrested but two of them managed to get bail,” said Pompa Ghosh, a social worker with Goranbose Gram Bikas Kendra (GGBK), the NGO that supports the survivors.
The woman now lives with her husband and two children, a 15-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son.
“If I get the money at all, I want to set up a grocery store that I will run. But I don’t know when,” the woman told Metro.
Another woman, now 25, was 17 when allegedly trafficked — also to Pune — in 2015. She was allegedly offered some spiked jhalmuri and water by a woman outside school. The next memory she has is of herself on a train. She was rescued in September 2017.
The woman, deserted by her husband, lives with her elderly parents, younger siblings and two children. She does embroidery on saris and salwar suits to eke out a livelihood. But the income is too meagre.
“If I get the money, I want to buy a stitching machine,” she said.
Ghosh of GGBK said these women showed enough courage to do the rounds of courts because they had hope in the justice-delivery system.
“That hope is under threat because of the delay,” she said.
Dev Kumar Sukul, member-secretary of SLSA, said: “There is no shortage of funds as of now. As far as I know, the compensations have been cleared till 2022. I will take a look at the individual cases. If some cases are stuck in some procedural logjam, they will be cleared at the earliest. I will try to ensure that the older pending payments are cleared by March-end.”