Imagine feeling a hot, burning sensation on your face and feeling helpless to make it stop, all while thinking about how this event will change your face and life the next day forever. This is what happens when someone is attacked by acid during broad daylight, in the streets of India.
In India there are about 250-300 acid attack cases reported, and more than half the amount of these cases consisted of women who were afraid to report them (USA Today). This is because women are afraid of disgracing their family or ashamed to show themselves in society for being blamed for the attack. They shouldn’t feel this way, but sadly this is how our society raises girls to be; scared and defenseless. Oftentimes, women are blamed for the attacks even though they are the ones who struggle the most. The number one cause of acid attacks is men attacking the women because the women refused their proposal or sexual advances which break the males ego (News Click).
How can one man’s ego change a woman's life forever? Just because a woman was taking a stand for herself and trying to control her own decisions by saying no, a male’s ego was broken and caused him to change a woman’s life forever. It is ridiculous that a woman has to suffer through so much just for the big ego’s that men carry.
Stats on Acid Attacks
From 2014-2018 (5 years) there were 1,483 cases of acid attacks (India Today)
Between the years 2017-2018, 596 cases were reported but only 149 people were charge-sheeted in each year (India Today)
Top three states in India without highest Acid cases from 2014-2018: Uttar Pradesh with 260, West Bengal with 248 and New Delhi with 114 (India Today)
In 2015, 734 cases were put in trial and out of those cases only 33 were completed (India Today)
Looking at this stats, it frustrates me to see that not even 25 percent of the cases were actually put on trial. Women should not be having to fight this hard in order for them to receive justice for the crimes done against them and fight for their rights. It is also crazy to see that there are over 1,000 lives that are changed within 5 years, and this is only the amount of cases that were noticed; there are probably so many attacks that go unnoticed.
Chhapaak
A movie that very well depicts the idea of acid attacks is Chhapaak. This movie tells the true story of a woman through the actress Deepika Padukone, who was attacked with acid to the face by a man in New Delhi in 2005. In this movie, she tries to rebuild her life, as she struggles with backlash from society as well as the mental toll this attack takes on her. I watched this movie, and it really touched my heart, to the point that I cried during many scenes. As I saw the movie it made me furious to see how at times she had to fight for her voice to be heard and it took her so long to get justice. It made me realize that the struggle of living after an acid attack is difficult but if one tries they are able to rebuild their lives in the best way possible.
Acid is a Weapon
There are many ways that we can help individuals who have gone through acid attacks. We need to first create stricter laws that will punish the perpetrator and make sure the victims receive the justice that is needed. When looking at acid cases, until 2013, acid attacks were not considered to be a separate crime and were not taken seriously. Even though acid is being banned in some parts of India and in Bangladesh some acid attacks have death penalties, there are still many parts of India that openly sell acid and are available at one’s fingertips (News Click). Not only this but acid in some parts of India costs less than 20 rupees or converted into American currency only 3 cents!
For all the victims it only took 3 cents for their lives to be changed forever and for the perpetrators it only took 3 cents for them to ruin another’s life.
Therefore, one major step that needs to be done, in my opinion, is to ban acid sales all together without a valid reason. Along with this there are many organizations that help acid attacks victims and help raise awareness. One such organization is the Chhayafoundation, which aids in working with acid attack survivors and gives them a platform to advocate their voice. This foundation also collaborates with organizations and holds campaigns such as the “Stop Acids Attacks Campaign.”
Words of Victims:
‘Before this I was extremely shy, but I don’t have that luxury anymore’
‘I could feel the liquid seeping into my skin, causing it to melt off’
‘The burns hospital was like hell on Earth, charred bodies would be rolled in’
‘It felt like someone had stripped off my skin and sprinkled chilli powder inside’ (Aljazeera).
Not only do acid attacks change a woman’s life, face but it also leaves a mental mark on a woman. After an acid attack, women have to fight to rebuild their lives from where they left off and have to fit back into society with a whole new face. This can take such a big mental toll on them because when looking back they think how a 3 cent bottle of acid changed their lives forever. In the South Asian society, we all know that stigmas on beauty standards are huge. Within our community, these standards for a woman are to be beautiful and fair, and thoughts that probably come to acid victims are how they will not pass these standards. If we put ourselves in their shoes, we can probably see everyone staring at us when we walk in the streets, or the struggles they face by society on beauty standards, with or without scars a woman should not have to deal with societal pressures. We have to come to the realization that these women are not at fault and we should not be judging them for the way they look. Instead we should commend these incredible women for the boldness and strength that they had for overcoming such a strong battle, which only exemplifies their beauty even more.