- Thursday, March 06, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Acid attack survivors, numbering in hundreds, have sought stricter laws against the sale of chemicals, after two motorcycle-borne men threw a corrosive liquid on a girl, 17, while she was on her way to school in Delhi recently.
Investigators said the main attacker among the duo — a boy below 18 years — purchased the acid online, the Guardian reported.
CCTV footage of the incident was widely shared and it caused a massive outrage all over India, giving birth to a new campaign to curb online sales of the corrosive materials that have already ruined several lives in the country.
As per India’s National Crime Records Bureau data, more than 1,000 acid attack cases were reported in the country between 2017 and 2021.
The numbers came down from 249 attacks in 2019 to 176 attacks in 2021 but the number of attempted attacks went up from 67 to 73.
According to authorities, the decline in the numbers was because of the pandemic-induced lockdown but expressed concerns that many cases were not even reported.
In 2013, a high court in India banned over-the-counter sales of acid to people and said potential buyers would need a government-approved identity document and show a valid reason for purchase.
The sellers were also obliged to retain a record of the sales.
Also, the landmark Criminal Law (Amendment) Act came following a campaign led by Laxmi Agarwal, a woman from the national capital who was badly burned in an acid attack as a 15-year-old in 2005.
The campaign won several gains for the survivors of such attacks, including access to rehabilitation.
After last week’s attack, Agarwal has flagged off a new petition seeking a total ban on acid sales.
“I shudder to think that this can happen to any girl in this country,” she wrote on social media.
In two days, more than 10,000 people signed her petition.
“Acid can change someone’s life forever. Acid leads to lifelong disfigurement of the face causing disability. The 20 rupees (20p) product takes away 20 years and more than £25,000 in treatment costs. It melts the skin down to the bones. It must be banned on an immediate basis,” the Guardian quoted Shaheen Malik, an acid attack survivor, as saying.
A foundation by Malik, who has a significant loss of vision since the attack, helps survivors with legal and medical aid.
In 2020, she moved the Delhi high court seeking a complete ban on acid sales, but it is still pending.
Her own case has also been stuck in legal limbo since 2009, while her attackers still roam free.
More than 1,500 acid attacks take place around the world every year.
The vast majority take place in the UK, and the rest in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
While the attacks in the UK are mainly gang-related, the ones in South Asian nations are mostly gender-based.
In India, 80 per cent of the attacks are against women and according to independent agencies, 60 per cent of go unreported.
