SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir cabinet’s decision to fix compensation for families of rape victims and those killed in police custody has drawn flak.
Separatists and pro-India parties alike have expressed outrage at the government’s decision.
They say the government has fixed a price for the chastity of a hapless woman instead of making sure that the rapists are brought to justice.
Pertinently, the cabinet, which met Friday accorded sanction to the revision of compensation payable to the victims or their dependents under the Jammu and Kashmir Victim Compensation Scheme-2013.
Under the new scheme, a victim of rape of minor or rape in police custody shall be paid Rs 3 lakh as compensation.
Similarly the government will pay: “Rs 2 lakh for death, Rs 3 lakh for torture in police custody, Rs 2 lakh for loss of any limb or part of body resulting in 80 percent disability, Rs 1.5 lakh for loss of limb or part of body resulting in 40 percent and below 80 percent disability.”
PDP spokesman, Naeem Akhtar told a local news agency, CNS, that the government had made atrocities “a commodity that could be sold and bought.”
“Justice is more important than compensation. You cannot rape and kill people keeping in mind that compensation would compensate your crime. Instead of harping on compensation why don’t the government punish culprits and deliver justice,” he said.
Senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah said: “Now the government has fixed a price for a human life. Instead of talking about compensation the government should hang the culprits involved in the killing of innocent persons”
Chairman of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Mohammad Yasin Malik said that the government is trying to institutionalize and legalize rapes and custodial killings.
“This Cabinet decision amply proves that government is legalizing the torture, deaths and rapes. This country is turning out to be a Fascist country where blood has become cheaper than water,” he said.
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