Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 28, 2025: Across South Asia, alarmingly high rates of sexual violence stand in stark contrast to extremely low conviction rates. Women and girls often encounter overwhelming legal, institutional, and social barriers when seeking justice – including weak enforcement of laws, lengthy delays in investigations and trials, and a lack of accessible survivor-centred legal support. State-run legal aid programmes in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka have been established to assist marginalised communities, but the specific needs of sexual violence survivors are not being met, with many excluded or struggling to navigate complex legal systems.
Improving access to legal aid in South Asia
To address these challenges, the South Asian Movement for Accessing Justice (SAMAJ) – a coalition of civil society organisations from Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka – has produced Exploring Legal Aid Mechanisms: Lessons from South Asia. This insightful new advocacy brief offers practical guidance to States, legal aid providers, law enforcement, justice sector actors, and civil society on how to improve the quality, accessibility, and responsiveness of legal aid to ensure access to justice for all sexual violence survivors and victims’ families.
Written by legal and women’s rights experts, the brief presents regional and country-level analysis and identifies deficiencies in criminal justice responses. It details how shortcomings amongst police, prosecutors, and court officials routinely compromise the quality and effectiveness of investigations, legal representation, and prosecutions.
“Sexual violence survivors in South Asia frequently experience stigma, discrimination, and long delays in criminal justice systems. These failings discourage many from seeking justice and enable perpetrators to avoid accountability,” explains Nawmi Naz Chowdhury, from Equality Now, SAMAJ’s Secretariat.
“While state legal aid exists, it remains out of reach for many. Women and girls often don’t know about services, and if they do manage to get legal aid assistance, systems are slow, complicated, and regularly fail to meet the specific needs of sexual violence survivors. To improve access to justice, we call on governments to bolster legal aid delivery by ensuring services are timely, well-funded, survivor-focused, and easily accessible for all.”
Increasing awareness about legal aid rights and services
The landmark report, Sexual Violence in South Asia: Legal and Other Barriers to Justice for Survivors, co-authored by Equality Now and Dignity Alliance International, revealed that sexual violence laws across the region are often inadequate and poorly implemented. Survivors and their families commonly face further victimisation – from both their communities and the justice system – leaving women and girls at heightened risk of abuse, and justice unobtainable.
SAMAJ’s brief builds on these findings by highlighting how legal aid remains significantly underutilised due to low public awareness about State provisions. For example, in India, the Prevention of Atrocities Act allows eligible survivors to select a private lawyer to work alongside a state-appointed public prosecutor. Having a lawyer of their choice means their interests will likely be better represented throughout the legal process. However, legal aid services remain underused because many don’t know what is available.
Across South Asia, delays and inefficiencies within justice systems fuel major backlogs, with survivors waiting years for cases to advance and receiving minimal updates about proceedings. Without information from the police and prosecutors, survivors may only learn about their full legal rights if they are connected to legal aid lawyers from state or civil society services.
Public knowledge about legal entitlements is essential for empowering survivors. Governments need to publicise legal aid rights and services through accessible, localised outreach.
Intersecting forms of discrimination based on sex, gender, age, disability, caste, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and religion must be addressed, with services tailored to meet the distinct needs of marginalised groups such as Dalit and Indigenous communities.
In Bangladesh, legal aid organisations have piloted case management systems prioritising support for women and girls with disabilities and from Indigenous communities. These kinds of models open a pathway for State-led services to improve outreach and reduce case backlog.
Legal aid systems need more funding
Underfunding in legal aid systems hinders innovation and the expansion of survivor-focused services. Without adequate resources, legal aid institutions are unable to customise support to meet the diverse requirements of survivors in different communities.
For those who do access legal aid, insufficient state funding and the limited availability of skilled legal aid lawyers with rights-based training lead to poor-quality legal services, substandard follow-up, and procedural problems.
Rural areas suffer worse shortages of well-qualified state-funded lawyers, making it even harder for survivors in remote communities to get legal support. Many have little option but to remain silent or abandon cases, especially where only male legal aid providers are available to discuss deeply personal details.
S. Perumal, Legal Consultant from ADECOM Network says, “In rural India, access to legal aid still depends on who you know or how far you’re willing to travel. Survivors of sexual violence need trained, sensitive lawyers, and they need them nearby. It is critical that we invest in building local legal aid systems that actually deliver justice.”
In Bangladesh, public prosecutors are often political appointees, and no accountability mechanism exists to ensure effective performance. Without clear training requirements or service standards, many prosecutors do not communicate with survivors, causing frustration and retraumatisation. Survivors report having to bribe court officials just to track their case status.
“Survivors in Bangladesh face long delays, stigma, and systemic neglect. When legal aid is not automatic, and prosecutors are absent or unaccountable, survivors are left with no choice but to give up. We need legal aid to work for the most vulnerable, not just those who can afford to push through,” explains Manish Biswas from Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST).
SAMAJ emphasises the need for stronger enforcement of existing laws and policies and calls for urgent legal reform to close protection gaps in South Asia. Governments should monitor the quality of legal aid services, support innovation, and strengthen partnerships between legal aid institutions and civil society organisations, as collaboration enhances service delivery.
Sustained funding for recruitment and training of lawyers, awareness-raising about services, and investment in long-term, survivor-centred solutions – including for the marginalised and vulnerable – are also crucial.
Notes to editor: For media inquiries, please contact: Aakansha Saxena, Equality Now Communications Officer, E: asaxena@equalitynow.org