Donita Jose By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Tasleem was all of 14, when she was married off to an Arab sheikh back in 2014. In the years since, life had not been easy for the teen. The 60-year-old sheikh from Oman who paid to marry her sexually assaulted her three times in a span of two days. Later forced to work as a child labourer in a plastic factory, neither the Department of Women Development and Child Welfare nor the district administration reached out to her with help. This, despite the fact that the investigation of her case, booked under the POCSO Act for rape and child marriage, was already underway. Five years later now, all accused in her case were acquitted by the Nampally court, disqualifying her from getting any compensation due for POCSO victims, except for the meagre Rs 25,000 she received as immediate relief. The incident raises one pertinent question: Should ‘conviction of the accused’ still be the only qualifier to compensate victims of POCSO and rape? Experts note that several victims of POCSO and rape cases have not received compensation beyond the token Rs 25,000 they get after the filing of FIR. The reason, unfortunately, is that the police and the legal system failed to prove the accused guilty. As per the victim compensation schemes under GO 28, they are entitled to a total sum of Rs 1 lakh — Rs 25,000 after the FIR is filed, Rs 50,000 after the chargesheet, and another Rs 25,000 post-conviction. With the case closed now, there is no scope any more for Tasleem to get this compensation. The Rs 50,000 that she was supposed to get after the filing of the chargesheet was never awarded to her. “We have intimated about a month ago that the compensation she was due will not be given as the accused were acquitted. Since she received the cheque for initial support in 2014, no help has come,” said Jameela Nishat, founder of the NGO Shaheen Women’s Resource Centre. Jameela has been fighting for young girls like Tasleem, who were robbed off their childhood in the garb of ‘weddings with sheikhs’. According to officials at the Bharosa centre, the special court for POCSO cases have already seen 52 acquittals within 16 months of its operation. “Only 10% of the cases see conviction of the accused. Hence, only those many victims get the compensation they are entitled to as well. In addition, it takes five to six years for even the case to reach the conviction stage. By then, many victims turn hostile and never get the compensation they are due,” stated Mamatha Raghuveer, technical director of Bharosa Centre. She also recommended that the compensation must, in fact, be given out by the police -- the department that actually has all details of the victim and the case. This will eliminate the chances of rehabilitation being overlooked.

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