Indian court chides govt for inaction over acid attacks

NEW DELHI — India’s Supreme Court has criticised the government for not being serious about preventing acid attacks, setting a July 16 deadline for a framework to be put in place to regulate over-the-counter sales of acids often used in such attacks.

“People are dying, but you are not worried about it. Think of the people who are losing their lives every day. Girls are being attacked every day in different parts of the country,” it said after hearing a plea by Ms Laxmi, an acid attack survivor. “Seriousness is not seen on the part of the government in handling the issue.”

The Supreme Court had asked the government to formulate a policy to curb the sale of acid in February, but no action has been taken.

There are no official statistics, but a study conducted by Cornell University in January 2011 said 153 attacks were reported in the media from 1999 to 2010. The New Delhi-based group Stop Acid Attacks says around three acid cases are reported nationwide each week.

In April, India’s Parliament approved a Bill that strengthened laws on assaults against women. The move came in the wake of the gang-rape and subsequent death of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi.

Acid attacks were included in the Bill. They were made a criminal offence with a minimum 10-year prison term, but a proposal for perpetrators to compensate victims, including coverage of medical expenses, was dropped.

Ms Laxmi, who goes by one name, was left badly scarred on her face, arms and chest after she was attacked with acid in 2005 by a man and a woman on a motorcycle near New Delhi’s upscale Khan Market. She was only 15.

Since the assault, Ms Laxmi has spent around one million rupees (S$21,200) on plastic surgery, most of it paid by her father’s former employer. Her father was a cook for a New Delhi family. He died last year.

“Treatment costs a lot. The government should help us with this and look after our medical expenses,” Ms Laxmi said. AGENCIES