Gangrape victims to receive Rs 10 lakh

New Delhi: For those who survived the horror of gang rapes, the Centre will pay a compensation of up to Rs 10 lakh to the victims through the Nirbhaya Fund.

Gangrape along with unnatural sexual assault have been added by the government in its “Compensation scheme for women victims or survivors of sexual assault and other crimes 2018.”

Till now compensation for gang-rape victims were given by the respective state governments through their own funds, as gang rape was not listed as a separate offence under any state scheme. For survivors of unnatural sexual assault, the compensation amount will be Rs 4 to 7 lakh in the newly created scheme. Apart from this, the Centre has also doubled the compensation amount for rape victims from the existing Rs 3 lakh to up to Rs 7 lakh under it.

Highly placed sources said that the Centre last week got the scheme approved through the Supreme Court and it will be implemented under the watch of the Union ministry for women and child development throughout the country. The Centre hopes that with the new scheme, greater number of sexual assault victims will get compensation amount, as currently the percentage of victims getting compensation under the various schemes of states is hardly 5 per cent to 10 per cent.