MADE BY – GIREESHA

SHARMA
1. Why acid attacks are common in India?
2. Reasons behind acid attacks?
3. How to prevent these attacks?
4. How the victims are treated by society after attacks?
5. What can be done to change the perspective of
people in India?
6. A survivor’s story .
 Acid attacks in India are instances of barbarism when one or more
individuals douse a woman's face with acid with an aim to disfigure it.
 They are common because of the Misogynist culture impregnated into
the psyche of males. "How could a girl challenge the norms?" "How
could she not to be submissive?"
- Abuse (Verbal/Physical/Mental) treated as the order of the day. We all
turn blind-eye until it happens to us
- Trying to take out frustration over the weaker sex.
- Sisterhood togetherness - this largely depends on societal
conditioning
- Law and order situation is definitely a factor to consider( I used to
walk free at 1 AM on empty roads in Mumbai almost everyday!) The
perpetrators are usually are let free in light of the legal complications
and power struggles. At best, the perpetrator will spend some years in
jail but not under rigorous imprisonment.
 Personal conflicts in intimate relations and sexual rejection
 Acid attacks often occur as revenge against a woman who
rejects a proposal of marriage or a sexual advance. Such
attacks are common in societies where there is a high level
of gender inequality and women occupy a subordinate
position in relation to men.
 Another cause of acid attacks are conflicts related to dowry.
 Conflicts over land and property.
 Gang violence and rivalry.
 Acid attacks related to conflicts between criminal gangs occur in
many places, ranging from the United Kingdom to India.
 Socially, politically and religiously motivated
 Attacks against individuals due to their social or political
activities, or due to their religious beliefs also occur. These
attacks may be targeted against a specific individual, due to their
activities, or may be perpetrated against random persons merely
because they are part of a social group or community. In
Pakistan, female students have had acid thrown in their faces as
a punishment for attending school. Acid attacks due to religious
conflicts have been reported in Tanzania.
 Acid attacks in India, like Bangladesh, have a gendered aspect to them:
analyses of news reports revealed at least 72% of reported attacks
involved women. However, unlike Bangladesh, India's incidence rate of
chemical assault has been increasing in the past decade, with a high 27
reported cases in 2010. Altogether, from January 2002 to October 2010,
153 cases of acid assault were reported in Indian print media while 174
judicial cases were reported for the year of 2000. However, scholars
think that this is an underestimation, given that not all attacks are
reported in the news, nor do all victims report the crime to officials.

 Motivation for acid attacks in India mirrors those in Bangladesh: 34%

of the analyzed print media in India cited rejection of marriage or
refusal by women of sexual advances as the cause of the attack and
dowry disagreements have been shown to spur acid attacks. Land,
property, and/or business disputes accounted for 20% of acid assaults
in India from 2002 to 2010. Illustrative cases of acid attack
include Sonali Mukherjee's case of 2003 in Jharkhand for protesting
sexual harassment, and Muhammad Razaq's case in Jammu & Kashmir
in 2014 for an acid attack on his wife for not bringing enough dowry.[50]
 REASONS BEHIND IT –
 Acid attacks often happen because of a feeling of
entitlement. We all know entitlement. We've seen its bitter
head rise in our social atmosphere. Entitlement is when a
guy tells his friends that a woman is a slut because she
wouldn't go out with him. Well, acid attacks are just a
brutal, physical and psychopathic manifestation of that.
It is an extension of the idea that "If I can't have her, then
no one can have her." The perpetrator is delusional enough
to think that she is rebuffing his advances because she is
arrogant. And he seeks to destroy what he thinks is the
source of her arrogance. Her looks. This is what happens
when misogyny mixes with criminal insanity.
Acid attacks have their base in a deep underlying culture of
misogyny. And they are often preceded by instances of
voyeurism, other forms of violence or repeated instances of
sexual harassment.
 PREVENTION - Emotions are momentary. They wreak havoc
and pass by. The resulting devastations and wounds are difficult
to heal. Society needs higher awareness. These victims do not
need any sympathy from anyone. They just need a helping hand
to feel oneness with society. Nobody is a victim if they choose
not to be one. Nobody is below anyone. There is none higher or
lower in this world. When an act of aggression takes place, and
when it creates inconvenience to society, a laser sharp judiciary
system should ensure prompt justice. A corresponding support
system should ensure rehabilitation. The rest will be managed by
itself.
 Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been
formed in the areas with the highest occurrence of acid attacks
to combat such attacks. Bangladesh has its Acid Survivors
Foundation, which offers acid victims legal, medical, counseling,
and monetary assistance in rebuilding their lives. Similar
institutions exist in Uganda, which has its own Acid Survivors
Foundation, and in Cambodia which uses the help of Cambodian
Acid Survivors Charity. NGOs provide rehabilitation services for
survivors while acting as advocates for social reform, hoping to
increase support and awareness for acid assault.
 The Acid Survivors Foundation India operates from different centres
with national headquarters at Kolkata and chapters at Delhi and
Mumbai.
 Acid Survivors Trust International (UK registered charity no. 1079290)
provides specialist support to its sister organizations in Africa and Asia,
is the only international organization whose sole purpose is to end acid
violence. The organization was founded in 2002 and now works with a
network of six Acid Survivors Foundations in Bangladesh, Cambodia,
India, Nepal, Pakistan and Uganda that it has helped to form. Acid
Survivors Trust International has helped to provide medical expertise
and training to partners, raised valuable funds to support survivors of
acid attacks and helped change laws. A key role for ASTI is to raise
awareness of acid violence to an international audience so that
increased pressure can be applied to governments to introduce stricter
controls on the sale and purchase of acid.
 Indian acid attack survivor Shirin Juwaley founded the Palash
Foundation to help other survivors with psycho-social rehabilitation.
She also spearheads research into social norms of beauty and speaks
publicly as an advocate for the empowerment of all victims of
disfigurement and discrimination. In 2011, the principal of an Indian
college refused to have Juwaley speak at her school for fear that
Juwaley's story of being attacked by her husband would make students
"become scared of marriage".
 Legislation in India
 India's top court has ruled that authorities must
regulate the sale of acid. The Supreme Court's ruling
on July 16, 2013 comes after an incident in which four
sisters suffered severe burns after being attacked with
acid by two men on a motorbike. Acid which is
designed to clean rusted tools is often used in the
attacks can be bought across the counter. But the
judges said the buyer of such acids should in future
have to provide a photo identity card to any retailer
when they make a purchase. The retailers must
register the name and address of the buyer. In
2013, section 326 A of Indian Penal Code was enacted
by the Indian Parliament to ensure enhanced
punishment for acid throwing.
 The victim is in a living hell. I cannot imagine the sheer amount
of pain they go through. Their face/body is disfigured, they are
in constant pain, some go blind or deaf, some are unable to
breathe or eat normally because of the damage to the face. In
addition to all this, they are shunned from the society. Friends
and relatives stop supporting/talking to their families. Their
parents have to see their child in constant pain. The medical
expenses are very high and most of the times, as these incidents
happen in rural India, the families cannot afford the treatment. I
just cannot imagine how difficult it is to go on living after this. I
know my courage would fail me.

It is painful, depressing and horrifying to know that there are

people living in the world that are unfit to be called humans
because they choose to do something like this to another person.
 However there is a much larger, more implicit undertone to it
all. Acid attacks are reasonably scary. The women who are
subjected to it are not only embroiled in an intense physical
toil buy also a psychological one when she has to deal with the
aftermath of the trauma. However this also affects other
women. Women who are not connected to this at all. Women
who hear about this on the news.
For a meaningful contribution to society what any individual
needs is a basic level of social security, and trust. A trust that
she can walk the streets and get home from work without an
angry co-workers chucking vitriol at her face. When she exerts
her rights and does not return unwanted attention, she trusts
that she has the right to feel safe after that.
Once that faith and that trust is eliminated, women are on
their own. This causes understandable hysteria and a serious
lack of security in women, transgender and any other people
who are vulnerable. How can an individual live their life and
rise to their highest potential when they're constantly worried
about their safety?
 Anger is clearly a weakness. Anger hurts oneself and others.
And those who are angry must be considered as ill. Treat
them with the balm of love. Help them to understand their
weaknesses. When the momentary rage wanes off, most of
them regret, and often live in regret their whole life. Rage
should be countered by awareness. Rage happens out of
emotions, non-understanding of higher truth and often
unfulfilled expectations. It is important to bring society to
the operational level of clean awareness, which comes out
of intellect and beyond. When rage happens, intellect is
shut down. Regrets essentially take place.
 The government needs to make new and strict rules against
any such crime and Given that most of the guilty in these
kind of cases are caught, strict punishments for them will
be a step forward in elimination this inhumane crime.
 Education system of India should be modified and it
should includes one subject with regards to violence
against women in India it include various crime done
against women , their common reasons , preventions from
them etc, so that our youth we will well informed about
such things and our future developing society’s thinking
can be a little different from the existing one. which will
help our India to get shaped in the direction of which we
want it.
 Gender inequality starts from our very own houses , where
all special treatments are given to boys of the family , this
situation can be change, if we provide proper education
facilities at every corner of India and if government starts
new programs for the unemployed youth of India, because
in my views some inequalities are created due to the lack of
education and employment
 Laxmi Agarwal is an Indian campaigner with Stop Acid Attacks
and a TV host. She is an acid attack survivor and speaks for the
rights of acid attack victims. She was attacked in 2005 at age 16,
by a 32-year-old man whose advances she had rejected. Her
story, among others, was told in a series on acid attack victims
by Hindustan Times. She has also advocated against acid attacks
through gathering 27,000 signatures for a petition to curb acid
sales, and taking that cause to the Indian Supreme Court. Her
petition led the Supreme Court to order the central and state
governments to regulate the sale of acid, and the Parliament to
make prosecutions of acid attacks easier to pursue.[1]
 She is the director of Chhanv Foundation, a NGO dedicated to
help the survivors of acid attacks in India. Laxmi received a
2014 International Women of Courage award by US First
Lady Michelle Obama. She was also chosen as the NDTV Indian
of the Year.
 Laxmi was born in New Delhi in a middle-class
family. Laxmi was acid attacked when she was in her
seventh standards, in the age of 15 years.
 Laxmi stated her career as a campaigner with Stop
Acid Attacks campaign. She worked as a campaign
coordinator in initial days. Soon, Laxmi became a voice
of the survivors of Acid Attacks across world. She
received multiple awards in India for her work to curb
the sale of acid and to rehabilitate the survivors of acid
attacks through her foundation.
 As of June 2014 Laxmi hosts a television show, Udaan,
on New Express.
 Laxmi, whose face and other body parts were disfigured in the acid attack, had
a PIL in 2006. A minor then, Laxmi was attacked with acid by three men
near Tughlaq road in New Delhi as she had refused to marry one of them. Her
PIL sought framing of a new law, or amendment to the existing criminal laws
like IPC, Indian Evidence Act and CrPC for dealing with the offence, besides
asking for compensation. She had also pleaded for a total ban on sale of acid,
citing increasing number of incidents of such attacks on women across the
country.
 During a hearing in April, the Centre had assured the Supreme Court of
India that it will work with the state governments to formulate a plan before
the next hearing on July 9. However, it failed to do so, which angered the court.
However, when the Centre failed to produce a plane, the Supreme Court
warned that it will intervene and pass orders if the government failed to frame
a policy to curb the sale of acid in order to prevent chemical attacks.
"Seriousness is not seen on the part of government in handling the issue," the
bench headed by Justice RM Lodha had said. Earlier, in February, the court had
directed the Centre to convene in six weeks a meeting of Chief Secretaries of all
states and Union Territories to hold discussion for enacting a law to regulate
the sale of acids and a policy for treatment, compensation and care and
rehabilitation of such victims.
 Meanwhile in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Laxmi and
Rupa’s plea, thereby creating a fresh set of restrictions on the sale of
acid. Under the new regulations, acid could not be sold to any
individual below the age of 18 years. One is also required to furnish a
photo identity card before buying acid. Laxmi claims that not much
has changed on the ground, despite all the regulations. "Acid is freely
available in shops. Our own volunteers have gone and purchased acid
easily. In fact, I have myself purchased acid," she said. "We have
launched a new initiative called ‘Shoot Acid’. By means of the Right to
Information Act, we are trying to acquire data concerning the sale of
acid in every district. We intend to present the information collected
through this initiative before the Supreme Court to apprise them of the
situation .

 As of January 2014 she is in love with social activist Alok Dixit. Both
decided not to get married and instead be in a live-in relationship. "We
have decided to live together until we die. But we are challenging the
society by not getting married. We don’t want people to come to our
wedding and comment on my looks. The looks of a bride are most
important for people. So we decided not to have any ceremony," said
Laxmi.[10] Their families have accepted the relationship and also their
decision not to have a ceremonial wedlock.n on the ground.
 One should always keep in mind that at the time of our
death, who will care to consider how many parties and
pompous dinners we attended, which involved the
massacre of hundreds of animals for our sensory pleasures?
We are often living a life of utter insensitiveness and
abandon. We are taking our own life and all that it has
offered to us for granted. What are we giving back to
Mother Earth? It is time to consider. Especially now, when
time has become faster. Time has become more precious.
We are racing against time. Can you look at those who
suffer? Are you able to see these boys and girls who have
suffered because of the emotions of another human being?
This is a wake-up call. Wake up before pain hits you. Wake
up before insensitiveness and tamas lure the society like
cancer. We should get up and ACT. ACT NOW. Never be
disconnected, hide inside your comfort zones and believe
that everything is all right. A life of inertia always meets up
with compelling tragedies, beware.