An Acid Attack Survivor Helps India Change Its Laws

Piyal Adhikary/European Pressphoto Agency Students taking part in a silent protest against the rising violence against women in Kolkata, West Bengal, on July 4.

NEW DELHI â€" On the morning of April 23, 2005, a seventh-grade student, Laxmi (who uses only one name), was waiting for a bus outside the Khan Market shopping complex in central Delhi. She had been hassled for the past few months. A friend's older brother, Naim Khan, 32, a tailor, had been stalking Laxmi and insisting that she marry him. Laxmi had repeatedly warded him off. As she waited for a bus, Mr. Khan appeared on a motorcycle with a woman. His female companion charged at Laxmi, pushed her onto the road, and poured a bottle of acid on her face. Moments later, the woman and Mr. Khan sped away on the motorcycle.

A police van took Laxmi to a public hospital. Her face - eyes, ears, nose, and lips - had been burnt. Her hands and her back had been injured. She stayed in the hospital for two and half months. Laxmi's father worked as a cook for an upper-middle class doctor in Delhi, who helped pay her medical expenses. Mr. Khan and the female attacker were arrested and given prison  sentences of  ten and seven years, respectively, in 2009.

Laxmi had to undergo seven restorative surgeries in private hospitals. She still can't see properly. She can't stretch her right arm fully. Her nose, ears, hands, and lips still need treatment. Her father and his employer, the doctor, have already paid one million rupees in medical bills for Laxmi. She had no support from the state.

Laxmi tried to find work but found herself shunned by potential employers.

“I will be called for an interview but after seeing my face the employers would express some sympathy. They would promise to inform me when they take a decision. It always meant a no,” Laxmi said in an interview last week. “Why should I be punished?”

The survivors of acid attacks in India live a life of seclusion and invisibility even inside their homes, Laxmi explained. A year after she was attacked, she teamed up with a pro-bono lawyer Aparna Bhat and filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court of India to seek compensation for the victims of acid attacks, free medical treatment for them, and regulation of acid sales in India, which could be bought over the counter.

“She was very angry and wanted to fight,” Ms. Bhat said in a phone interview.

The Supreme Court of India directed the Law Commission of India to file a report on acid attacks and the laws dealing with them. Indian laws did not include the disfiguration of a woman in an acid attacks as a separate crime, but included the crime in the categories of hurt, grievous hurt, or attempt to murder. No official data on the number of acid attacks across India exists because the attacks were not registered by the Indian police as a separate offense.

“The acid is usually thrown at victim's face,” the Law Commission of India report noted. “The perpetrator wants to disfigure the victim and turn them into monster.”

The Law Commission of India recommended treating acid attacks as separate crime. In the aftermath of the gang rape of a student in Delhi in December, the Indian government established a committee headed by an eminent jurist and retired chief justice of the Supreme Court, J.S.Verma. Justice Verma's report also recommended creating a separate offence for acid attacks against women.

The Indian government accepted the recommendations and modified the criminal law to punish a person guilty of an acid attack with minimum 10 years in prison and a maximum of up to life imprisonment. It also added a fine of up to one million rupees, nearly $17,000 U.S.

Laxmi, 23, found work as a volunteer with an activist group, Stop Acid Attack. She makes 10,000 rupees a month and looks after her mother and younger brother. Her father died. Her struggle is beginning to bear fruit.  In response to her petition the Supreme Court of India passed an order, last week, to stop the open sale of acid and asked state governments to regulate it by asking dealers to register the identification  of buyers and state what they were using it for. Acid cannot be sold over the counter anymore.

“The acid attack victims need to restore their body and their self. They need high-class surgery and counseling,” said Professor Shiv Visvanathan, an eminent sociologist, who teaches at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy in Sonipat, near New Delhi. The Supreme Court of India still needs to decide on compensation and free medical treatment of victims.

Scholars and activists in India are struggling to find the precise time when acid attacks started occurring in the country. Many cite the  infamous incident known as the Bhagalpur blindings in 1979 as a pivotal moment after which India saw an increase in reports of acid attacks. Between 1979 and 1980, the police in Bhagalpur town in the northern state of Bihar blinded 33 undertrials by gouging out their eyes and pouring acid into the sockets of their eyes.

“The reports of acid attacks on women increased in the 1980s after the Bhagalpur blindings,” Professor Visvanathan said.