Here's an extract from a PRIVATE conversation on Facebook:

PERSON: Can anyone explain to me the logic of giving the girls family money from the govt side? Delhi govt gave 15 lakhs, UP govt gave 20 lakhs. She was not an earning member of the family as yet. She was not killed directly due to govt negligence. There are several cases like hers getting reported now every single day. Does any govt have a policy of paying compensation ex gratia to every rape or murder victim? Or is it that she was special because she became a media symbol?

Sanjeev Sabhlok Great points. There must be the rule of law, in which there is simply no discretion given to the government in any case. It is clear that governments in India have taken upon themselves a discretionary role that was available to kings of the olden days. Instead, the government could have started a fund for her and asked the people to contribute. I'm sure there would have been crores of rupees collected for the family – AND all other rape victims of India. That would have been an appropriate way to do things.

Indeed, anyone can do such a thing. The best entity for this purpose is perhaps http://maps4aid.com/ – which keeps track of all rape and other violence against women on a daily basis. Please contact them. If you find the right person, I'm happy to join. Together we'll be able to get a large number of other supporters, as well.

Such funds can also be used for legal support of rape victims (over and above any public support already available).

I'd like to suggest that FTI, Bharat Swabhiman and Maps4aid – and any other organisation that is interested, consider establishing a PEOPLE'S corpus that will be used to compensate families of any future rape victims – indeed there are tens of rapes each day across India. If you know of any existing organisation that does this, please let me know.

Instead of giving discretionary powers to corrupt politicians, let the people of India do this on their own.

Indeed, this could well be done under the umbrella of Citizens Government (http://cgov.in) that I floated a few months ago – but which is languishing for lack of youth energy.

In particular, Bharat Swabhiman has a women's wing with 16 lakh members. That wing has the ability to reach out to most villages of India. It can play a major role in this regard.

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