Hyderabad: Anuradha from Hyderabad in 1997, Vijayalakshmi from Hyderabad in 1998, Swapnika T. Praneeta from Warangal in 2008, eight-year-old Sameera from Hyderabad in 2013 and Anita from Tirupati in 2014. And more keep being added to the list of acid attack victims in the state.
There have been 12 such gruesome incidents reported in Andhra Pradesh in the last one year alone. It took Anuradha, currently a professor at the Agricultural University here, 13 years to get justice. In 1997, as a student in the same college, she refused a proposal from a fellow student. He attacked her by throwing acid on her.
Protesting against these acid attacks, the delay in getting justice and demanding more awareness, and restrictions on the sale of acid is a campaign called Spot of Shame, Stop Acid Attacks. On Sunday, the campaigners staged a street play, a candlelight vigil and a sit-in at Dharna Chowk.
The nation-wide campaign to fight for acid attack survivors and to form a support system that will help them with getting compensation and justice, has travelled across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Delhi, and Mumbai and other cities. The campaign is called Spot Of Shame because the protest is held on the exact spot where the acid attack took place.
“There are many such victims who have lost their jobs, family and more because of being rejected for the burn marks. Sometimes in severe cases, many lose their vision and even succumb to their injuries,” said Shraddha Mishra, one of the campaigners.
Women’s rights activists say that in a majority of cases the husband himself is the offender. “In the upbringing of a boy, imparting moral values, teaching him to respect women, all this matters.
A man behaves like he owns his wife and claims his ownership over her. And with such high ego issues, one tends to feel very dejected if the woman protests over even a small issue,” said K. Satyavati from Bhumika Women’s Collective.
