Acid ATTACKS

Abstract

Over the last decade, India has been witnessing an alarming rise in acid attacks. Acid violence is a heinous crime, committed usually against women, with the intention to disfigure or kill the victim. This may be classified as gender-based violence against women. What is gender-based violence involving men and women in which the female is usually the victim and which arises from an unequal power relationship between men and women? It may be said that “acid attacks are used as a weapon to silence and control women by destroying what is constructed as the primary constituent of her identity.” Acid attack is often referred to as a “crime of passion” fuelled by jealousy and revenge. Actual cases, though, show that they are usually the result of rage targeting women who dare to refuse the advances of a male. Moreover, in today’s patriarchal and conservative societies, overemphasis is laid on the marriage of a girl. Attacks with acid rarely kill, but they cause severe physical, psychological and social scarring. Victims are often left with no legal resource, only limited access to medical or psychological assistance and without the means to support themselves. Statistics show a clear increase in the number of acid attack in the South Asian “countries” in the recent years. At least 106 such attacks were reported in 2012, according to the acid survivours sahasa Foundation (ASFI), and that figure climbed to over 500 in 2015. This chapter deals with the horrendous effect that the acid attack has on female victims. The victim faces challenges from all sides that are physical, psychological, social and economic. The chapter also examines the contemporary laws governing the issue of acid attacks.