MUMBAI: Devi is a bubbly teenager who loves hip hop and belly dancing, and still nurtures her childhood dream to become a doctor, even after her life took a cruel turn when she was trafficked and sold for sex in Mumbai two years ago.
“I want to study science after high school. I know it is difficult, but I have the will to study. I was only unsure of the money,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from a shelter where she has stayed since she was rescued.
Now the money she needs has come through.
A few weeks ago, the government of the western state of Maharashtra deposited 75,000 rupees ($1,150) into Devi’s bank account, making her a rare beneficiary of a compensation scheme for victims of sexual violence that has failed to compensate many trafficking survivors.
She will receive another 225,000 rupees when she turns 18 next year.
Thousands of — largely poor, rural women and children — are lured to India’s towns and cities each year by traffickers who promise good jobs, but sell them into modern day slavery.
Some end up as domestic workers, or forced to work in small industries such as textile workshops, farming or are pushed into brothels where they are sexually exploited.
Maharashtra is one of the top destinations for trafficked children in the country. The state government is preparing to review a financial aid scheme it established in 2013 for victims of rape and acid attacks, and for children who have been sexually assaulted.
Since its launch, Maharashtra has received 7,500 requests and offered payments to nearly 4,500 girls. Some claims were rejected while others have been held up for lack of funds, an official said.
Adult trafficking victims have not been able to access compensation as perpetrators in such cases are charged under anti-trafficking laws — not rape laws, which is a requirement to get aid under the scheme.
Yet trafficking victims under the age of 18 can be compensated if their cases are registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
A district office committee decides on compensation based on the report filed by police and the victim’s medical records.
Indian sex trafficking survivor gets compensation cash
Indian sex trafficking survivor gets compensation cash
South Sudan officers face court martial over civilian massacre
- The increasingly unstable country is seeing a surge of fighting between government and opposition forces
JUBA: South Sudanese soldiers, including two officers, will face a court martial over a civilian massacre last month, the army spokesman said Wednesday.
The increasingly unstable country is seeing a surge of fighting between government and opposition forces, much of it in eastern Jonglei state where at least 280,000 people have been displaced since December according to the UN.
At least 25 civilians, including women and children, were killed in Ayod County in Jonglei state on February 21, according to the opposition.
Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said that two officers, including a major, and several non-commissioned officers, had been arrested and would face charges in the capital Juba, “before they are arraigned before a competent military court martial.”
He said the deaths were attributed to “some elements” under Gen. Johnson Olony, who was filmed in January ordering troops to “spare no lives” in Jonglei.
Koang said the soldiers had “moved out without the knowledge or authorization of the division commander.”
He also said they had been part of a militia group allied to opposition forces, parts of which had not yet been fully integrated into the army.
Military integration was among the core principles of a peace agreement that ended South Sudan’s five-year civil war in 2018 between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Riek Machar, but it was never implemented.
Koang said the army regretted the loss of lives, adding: “We would like to once again remind our forces that their mandate is to protect civilians and their property, not to do the opposite.”
It followed an impassioned plea from the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference on recent civilian killings — in Ayod, and also in Abiemnom County near the Sudan border where at least 169 people were killed on Sunday.
“We implore you to deploy resources to protect vulnerable populations and foster a climate of dialogue and reconciliation instead of violence and revenge, consoling the bereaved and supporting the afflicted,” it said in a statement.
