Author: Ambrish Sharma, Student at Law College, Dehradun, Uttaranchal University
INTRODUCTION
India is a country where goddesses are glorified, yet ladies in the home are subjected to disgrace, cruelty, and assault. To add salt to the wound, women who come out to expose the wrongdoing against them are asked questions like, “What proof do they have?” by their own family and friends. Such inquiries are hostile in character since, in most situations, the offended person has no solid evidence to back up their claims, and they are labeled as “frauds” or worse, “made to suffer” for doing the correct thing. The punishment comprises a wide variety of abuses, from severe kinds of harassment to lethal acid assaults.
The intentional tossing of acid on a victim, generally on her face, is known as an acid attack. It is a terrible gender bias crime committed against females at a very large number. Acid attacks cause extreme agony, lasting deformity, infections, and often blindness in one or both eyes, in addition to inflicting psychological distress. According to the survey, 78 percent of acid attacks occur because of a refusal to marry, rejection of love, or other personal reasons. Acid attacks on women are becoming more common by the day, especially among girls aged 11 to 30. Since cheap acid is so readily available, criminals see it as an excellent weapon to bring into action, this horrific crime against women. Although the illegal sale and purchase of acid is a non-bailable offence, it is widely available in most supermarkets and hardware stores in both urban and rural regions. Sulphuric, Hydrochloric and nitric acids are the most prevalent acids used in these attacks. Some females are lucky to have survived the assault, but the majority dies to their burns. Are the survivors truly lucky? What happens to the perpetrators? And, perhaps most importantly, why are the numbers of such violent incidents in India so high? According to the findings, the majority of those who have been subjected to acid attacks have also been subjected to other forms of violence, such as exclusion from society, difficulty arranging marriages, work issues, and so on. Local governments and administrative agencies are implementing a number of public awareness campaigns to raise public awareness about this terrible act. This study aims to illustrate the causes and the consequences of the acid attacks on the helpless woman, as well as the issues or hindrances that the victims have faced.
