Awareness of Acid Attack on Women in India
Acid attack is one of the most dreadful forms of crime imposed on women, all over the world. In India every year thousands of acid attacks occur. Some of them are reported and registered whereas majority of them remain unreported due to miscellaneous reasons. The gravity of the crime is usually overlooked in Indian scenario. Acid attacks cripple the character of a women and she is left helpless, worthless and totally crumbled. The concerned book we are talking about addresses the sensitivity of the acid attacks on women in India and the callous approach of Indian law system towards such a heinous crime .Our law system does not lay an exact law which undertakes the acid hurling offence due to which accused escapes the punishment or is given minimal punishment whereas it should be given harsh penalty and the victim despite of being inflicted with atrocities is served with nothing worth from the law. The Victim gets neither monetary gain which she should get for the treatment nor she is given justice which should involve severe punishment like death penalty as the offender almost paralyze physical, mental and emotional being of victim. Looking deep into such cases we also found that over the years various kinds of acid attacks could not even be registered properly by the police. Such case have been registered under the sections related to hurt, grievous hurt, murder etc. However, the nature and effect of the crime of acid attack is very distinct and complex and the sections relating to hurt and grievous hurt do not provide an adequate relief and punishment. Apart from this the police often use their discretion to decide what sections should be registered in the case of acid attacks and this discretion is at times influenced by gender bias and corruption or is a wrong assessment.
At the other side of the story the victim lives almost like a dead being. Their life becomes miserable. They are treated as an outcast in the society. Be it earning livelihood or interacting with friends and relatives or a simple walk out of home, everything become a difficult task for the victim. Acid violence is a deliberate act of violence as the perpetrator of the crime carries out the attack by first obtaining the acid, carrying it on him and then stalking the victim before executing the act. Section 322, 324,326 which states voluntarily causing grievous hurt, punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means respectively and under which the accused can be booked don’t seem enough to punish the accused. An amendment must be made in the Indian Penal Code, Evidence Act and the Criminal Procedure Code for dealing with acid attack as a special offence.
The objective of this book is to bring the issue to be noticed by Indian society along with implementing the new law directly addressing the acid attack which is almost absent in IPC. It would be done by sampling the life of an acid attack victim Arti Srivastav who has been suffering the consequences of acid hurling. The book traces the nuances of sufferings bear by acid attack victims. This is showcased with exemplifying the life of Arti Srivastav who at the age of 19 while pursuing first year of graduation from DAV College Kanpur was attacked by Abhinav Mishra. She was attacked in response of the spurned romantic advances by Abhinav Mishra who incessantly proposed Arti Srivastav. She was attacked on Jan 27, 2000 . In the accident, her face, hair, nose, ear, neck was disfigured badly. Even after four surgeries and nearly 11 years of attack, her look remains appalling. And the irony is that the accused was given imprisonment in 2009 that is after nine years after the attack. The accused was also ordered by the fast track court to pay 5 lakhs rupees as fine in which 50 percent was allotted for the treatment of the victim which the accused has not followed yet. The victim needs a lot of funds for her reconstructive surgery and has also not got any monetary support from any political,social or women organization except some help from the then BJP government and Prem Lata katiyar, a MP from Kanpur again belonging to BJP. UP government carries moral and social responsibility of helping Arti Srvastav on financial basis which she needs for her reconstructive surgery. This case itself shows that the punishment that is awarded does not take into account the deliberate and gruesome nature of the attack and rests on technicalities of injuries. The intent of the book is to bring all of these niceties in social limelight so that victims like Arti get unwavering support from all aspects of society. There is an urgent need to mend the loopholes in our system which poorly backs such victims.
We have been working on Acid attack on women in India for last few months and seek your cooperation while working on this generally neglected topic in Indian scenario. We have written to Indian Women Welfare Foundation, National Commission for Women, Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Women & Child Development, AIDWA to notice the gravity of the subject.
We are little contented that in the response to our desperate efforts to bring a specific law to address the acid attack victims and punishing the accused for the heinous crime, the government of India is considering to bring an amendment in Section 326 in order to punish those who are found guilty of throwing acid on women and girls and causing grievous hurt to them. The accused may have to spend the rest of their lives in jail and pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to the victims. A six-member expert group set up by the government to examine the issue has recommended changes in the existing law to classify acid attacks as a separate offence in the Indian Penal Code (IPC).The draft Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill prepared by a group of secretaries headed by home secretary GK Pillai has recommended a jail term from 10 years to a maximum of life imprisonment for those found guilty of acid attacks. The group has also proposed a Rs 10 lakh fine on the guilty, which would have to paid to the victim as compensation. The proposed clause A to 326 would prescribe the punishment for the intentional act of throwing acid to cause burns, disfiguring of the body and disabling any part of the body.
The concerned activity may have kindled a ray of hope to us but we still have lot to say over this under consideration move by the government. We have some straight forward issues which we want government to implement while forming the law against acid attacks. Firstly the ten years of imprisonment to the accused is not justified on the grounds of justice as the some of the victims loose their lives whereas some loose the vital body parts such as eyes and most of them suffer from permanent physical disfigurement. The victim is not only injured on physical basis but also on the emotional, psychological and social front. The losses to the victim can’t be resurrected and cripple the sufferer. Such heinous crime must be dealt with death penalty or life time imprisonment .Secondly the amount of 10 lakh may appear big on paper but is literally very less when it comes to the post injury treatment .To quote an example Arti Srivastav who was attacked on Jan 27, 2000 in Kanpur has undergone 4 surgeries till now and has spent nearly 15 lakhs on her treatment .She still needs four to five surgeries. Even after those surgeries total restoration is almost impossible. Therefore much more is needed for them. There is also a perspective to it that some of the accused may have poor financial background and may not provide any money to the victim at all. Thirdly government must take charge of it to uplift the status of acid attack victims by providing these socially ousted individuals with rehabilitation including jobs to support themselves.
Therefore we appeal government and the society to notice our concerns and cooperate these hapless and hopeless acid attack victims.
Regards
Alok Dixit & Saumya Verma
(Team Members working on ‘Acid attack on Women in India’)
