They say women are extremely resilient and can cope with the worst possible scenarios effectively. I happened to meet 27 year old Sonali Mukherjee yesterday. Her story touched me.
Seldom have I come across anyone as strong as her. She is an acid attack victim, an attack so brutal that not only did it melt the flesh of her face and left it disfigured, but it caused her to lose sight as well. And why did this happen? Because nine years back, unlike most Indian girls who are subjected to sexual harassment she decided to confront her assailants. The spurned men in a fit of rage decided to take revenge on this beautiful girl of 17 by breaking into her house in Dhanbad, Jharkhand and pouring concentrated acid on her face while she was asleep. The life of a beautiful, bright, young girl with a promising future came to an abrupt halt just like that. Just because she decided to speak up against what was wrong. Her attackers, in the meanwhile were let off on bail and are roaming about freely in the society.
A few months back I watched the Academy award winning documentary, Saving Face which highlighted the plight of women in Pakistan who were subject to acid attacks by not only outsiders but their own kin! I was aghast when I contemplated as to how inspite of living in the so called civilized 21st century society, we are still not able to eliminate barbarianism from the minds of people. How is it so easy to procure a bottle of acid from the shop round the corner for merely Rs 35 and use it to commit such heinous acts? How perverted must be the mind that devises such an act of revenge? To leave somebody scarred for life, to make somebody's life a living hell.
A little research threw light on how there are hardly any provisions in our law to protect acid attack victims and prevent such attacks. Presently, only sections 320 (causing emasculation and disfigurement), 322 and 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 326 (causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) can be employed to prosecute the culprits. This is not enough. The legislature has proposed to add two sections to the IPC to deal with acid attacks and propose to make these offences non-bailable. I believe this is a welcome move, when implemented but not enough.
There need to be stringent guidelines pertaining to procurement and hoarding of acid just the way they exist for arms and ammunition. Over the counter sale of acid must be banned and the victim should be given adequate compensation and rehabilitation. Police apathy is another issue that needs to be dealt with. Several victims do not file FIRs for the fear of the perpetrators seeking further revenge on them and their families because there isn't any police protection accorded to the victim and her family.
A Thomson Reuters survey says that India is the fourth most dangerous place in the world for women to live in after Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan. How despicable is the fact that gender targeted crimes such as and not limited to female foeticide, FGM, rape, acid attack, harassment, eve teasing make it to our newspapers every day and that we've learned to live with such incidents happening in our neighbourhoods every day.
What a sorry state of affairs for a country that refer to as our Motherland.
