The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Acid attack victims yet to get assistance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 27, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Acid attack victims yet to get assistance

Staff Reporter

High Court had directed Government to provide help and rehabilitation package

DEFIANT: Acid attack victim Haseena releasing the CSAAAW report `Burnt, Not Defeated', in Bangalore on Thursday flanked by CSAAAW president Shashikala Belagali (right) and member Sanjana. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: On April 20, 1999, 19-year-old Haseena's life changed forever, when Joseph Rodriguez decided to avenge Haseena's rejection of his offer of a job by flinging two litres of concentrated sulphuric acid on her.

In August 2006, the Karnataka High Court sentenced her attacker to life imprisonment. He was asked to pay Rs. 2 lakh as compensation to the victim. The Division Bench, comprising Justice S.R. Bannurmath and Justice Subhash B. Adi, said, "One would shudder to look at her damaged face." It said Haseena could not walk on the streets and had, thus, become a prisoner in her house.

The court said it "could not shut its eyes to the growing and obnoxious tendency of the youth to use corrosive substances such as acid, causing not only severe physical damage but also mental trauma in the victims". In case the acid victim survives, it will only be as a grotesque disfigured person, who lives with mangled flesh and suffers a fate worse than death, the Bench said.

It also directed the State Government to expeditiously provide special help and rehabilitation for victims of acid attacks. It took note of the fact that restorative surgeries cost a fortune, and they were not affordable to ordinary people.

Little though has changed. Today, 56 women have joined a growing list waiting for relief. Five of the women have died, while the rest continue to "suffer a fate worse than death". They have become statistics in the report "Burnt, Not Defeated" released by the Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW), a coalition of several organisations and individuals.

The report contains the testimonies of the women who have fended off unwelcome attentions from men, fought gender bias and oppression in the home and workplace and finally became victims of a horrendous crime that "punished the victim more harshly than the perpetrator", as Haseena's father had said.

Hope fading

CSAAAW representative Sanjana said the hope that the High Court directive would bring relief to these women is now fast fading, as the Government drags its feet on implementing the package.

In December the Department of Women And Child Welfare drew up a package of relief for acid attack victims, providing assistance ranging from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 10,000 to victims, while the Karnataka State Commission for Women would provide Rs, 10,000.

Demands

The main demands of CSAAAW are: survivors should be provided all required medical facilities, including first aid and long-term surgical treatment; cases should be booked under Sections 320 and 326 of the Indian Penal Code instead of other sections so that the case is not dismissed lightly as an incident of harm caused by using "dangerous substances"; the sale and use of concentrated acids should be strictly regulated; and the State Government should provide rehabilitation to the survivors in case they are unable to do so themselves.

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