1$ pour détruire une vie...

No law to check it! 
Rs 50 to destroy a face and life

 

Remember Sonali Mukherjee, 27, the acid attack victim, who has been appealing to the government to grant her euthanasia! Nine years back, when she was an under -graduate student, three boys from her neighbourhood, who used to tease her, threw acid on her. Though the court gave them nine years of imprisonment, they were set free on bail after three years. Sonali has been asking the government to either give her medical support for skin reconstructive surgery as well as tougher penalties on her three assailants, or let her die. 

Sonali’s is not an isolated case; hundreds of women lead a life of suffering, hiding from public eye for their shockingly mutilated faces. Many of them turn blind and deaf, facing physical and mental agony for which they need a proper rehabilitation plan. 

Around 1,500 acid attacks are reported globally each year, with 80 per cent of them on women, according to a London-based charity, Acid Survivors Trust International. Though it is a gross under-estimation of the crime, as most victims are scared to speak out, especially in the Asian countries. There is no official statistics available for India, but a study conducted by Cornell University in January 2011 said there were 153 attacks reported in the media from 1999 to 2010. Most of these attacks, said the study, are acts of revenge, when a woman spurns sexual advances or rejects a marriage proposal, she is made to suffer for saying ‘no’ to a man.
In this context, the freeze mob protest, demanding special laws for punishing for acid attacks in Delhi by the students of Delhi University, J &K and other states on January 11, is a grim reminder that despite Cabinet-approved amendments in the criminal law- 2012, which proposed 10 years punishment for such crimes and a fine of Rs 10 lakh, Parliament has not passed the Bill. Also, the government has not found a way to stop selling of acid in the open market, which is available for as cheap as Rs 50 a bottle. Enough to destroy a life!