Evolution of Victimology in India: From Marginalization to Recognition

Victimology, the study of victims, their experiences, and the responses of legal and social institutions, has undergone a profound transformation in India over the last half century. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the criminal justice process cast the victim in a peripheral role: a mere witness to the State’s prosecution of the offender. Beginning in the late twentieth century, constitutional tort jurisprudence and committee reports gradually foregrounded the needs of victims as subjects of justice rather than incidental objects of procedure. Reform milestones followed: the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) amendments culminating in the 2008 insertion of Section 357A (Victim Compensation Scheme) and the proviso to Section 372 (victim’s right to appeal), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 with its 2020 Rules, the Justice Verma Committee’s 2013 recommendations resulting in substantial criminal law amendments, the Supreme Court’s approval of the Witness Protection Scheme (2018), and a string of judgments expanding victims’ participation and entitlements. In 202324, Parliament enacted the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), which took effect in 2024 and further institutionalized victim centric procedures (e FIR/zero FIR facilitation, mandatory 90 day investigation status updates to informants/victims, medical treatment duties, and structured plea bargaining with restitutional potential). This paper traces the evolution from marginalization to recognition, situates Indian developments in comparative and international frameworks (notably the 1985 UN Declaration on victims), analyzes emerging jurisprudence (e.g., Ankush Shivaji Gaikwad, Nipun Saxena, Jagjeet Singh, Rekha Murarka), and evaluates implementation through administrative schemes such as the Nirbhaya Fund, One Stop Centres, and NALSA coordinated compensation. Persistent gaps, uneven access, delays, low awareness, and intersectional vulnerabilities, are assessed alongside data snapshots (e.g., NCRB 2023), with policy directions proposed for deepening a rights based victimology attuned to dignity, participation, and effective redress.