New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed governments to compensate, rehabilitate and provide free treatment to the survivors of acid attacks.
A bench of justices M.Y. Eqbal and C. Nagappan gave the direction on December 7 while dealing with a case of an acid attack victim from Bihar, an eastern Indian state.
Acid attack is the act of throwing acid similar corrosive substance onto the body of another person “with the intention to disfigure, maim, torture, or kill.” Perpetrators throw acid usually at their victim’s faces, burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones.
The long term consequences of these attacks include blindness, as well as permanent scarring of the face and body,[ along with far-reaching social, psychological, and economic difficulties.
The apex court asked the Bihar government to pay compensation of 1 million rupees to the victim, besides providing her free treatment including reconstruction surgery.
The matter was brought before the apex court by Parivartan Kendra (center for transformation), a Bihar-based NGO, that sought the court’s direction on rehabilitation of acid attack victims, alleging that private hospitals were not providing free treatment to the victims.
Earlier, the court had issued directions including an order to all private hospitals across the country to provide free treatment, including medicines and expensive reconstruction surgeries, to victims of acid attacks.
It had asked all governments to “take up the matter with private hospitals” to ensure acid attack victims are attended to immediately and adequately.
The hospitals where such victims are rushed after the incident would have to provide a certificate or document stating that the person was an acid attack victim and the document would enable her or him to access free treatment, including surgeries, at a later stage, it had directed.
On the banning of off-the-counter acid sale across the country, it had asked all states to notify acid as a ”scheduled substance” to stop its unregulated sale.
The court had also said its order should be sent to chief secretaries, who in turn, would ensure that it reached district magistrates for compliance and directed them to publicize it to ensure awareness among the people, the Telegraph of Kolkata reported.
There is no separate statistics for acid violence cases in India until early 2013 because the Indian criminal law did not recognize it as a separate offence. With the amendment in Indian Penal Code in February 2013, incidents of acid attack are now being recorded as a separate offence under section 326A and 326B.
The first data available after the amendment relate to 2014 when 349 cases were reported from all over India. Earlier, 106 such cases were reported in 2012 and 116 in 2013, according to Acid Survivors of Foundation of India (ASFI).
The Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery of Dec 2007 noted that in India reports an estimated 700, 000 to 800, 000 burn injuries a year. ASFI suspects many of those cases could be acid attacks.
The Indian government statistics show that an estimated 7,000 brides are killed and 18,000 are maimed every year in India over dowry disputes alone.
Acid attacks have been reported around the world. This type of violence is mainly concentrated in South Asia. Bangladesh has reported the highest number of attacks and highest incidence rates for women, with 3,512 Bangladeshi people acid attacked between 1999 and 2013.