This acid rain should dry up
19 July 2013 7:26 PM GMT
The Supreme Court’s order to the state governments to ensure the speedy treatment and rehabilitation of acid attack victims comes as a sign of relief, particularly to those at the brunt of these reprehensible and vindictive practices that target women from all sections of the society.
The apex court’s directive to raise the amount of compensation to Rs 3 lakh, with Rs 1 lakh to be paid within 15 days is also a welcome development, since the hapless victims, apart from suffering unbearable social and cultural stigma and ostracisation, also go through enormous economic and financial consequences of facial disfigurement.
Naturally, the court found that the paltry sum doled out in the name of compensation was ‘grossly inadequate’, indicating the utter apathy that the victims face from not just the society at large, but especially, from the governments, which prefers to consign them to living degrading lives at the forgotten margins of the system.
Most of the times, it is the humungous medical expenses against delicate reconstructive surgeries that act as the primary barriers to these victims leading a normal and healthy life. While civil society activists have been pressuring the state governments for years to raise safety measures for women, until now, the states had only displayed complete disregard to do something about the issue.
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