PANJIM, Jan. 27 -- The statistics are stark. Goa has been unfair and cruel to its most vulnerable victims of sexual and other forms of violence. Official documents in possession of the Herald reveal that in North Goa, between 2015 and 2022, victims were compensated 2016, 2017 and 2018. But in 2015, and for four years from 2019 to 2022, not a single child victim received any compensation under the Victim Compensation Scheme for Children 2015.

South Goa fares worse. In the six years 2015 and 2020, not a single child victim has received even one rupee.

The situation gets even grimmer when you realise the abysmal rate of case disbursals. Since 2015 till date, North and South Goa District administrations have together disbursed compensation ...