Two men in Srinagar have been convicted of an acid attack at a 20-year old law student in Srinagar’s Nowshera district in 2014 and have been sentenced to life imprisonment. These men are — Irshad Ahmad Wani alias Sunny and Muhammad Umar Noor. The defence lawyer pleased for 10 years punishment after they were found guilty but prosecution asked for maximum punishment that is life imprisonment.
While this is a momentous verdict and would go a long way in giving hopes to acid attack survivors we have to talk about the concept of justice for the survivor. Most often when mainstream media covers such news, they do not delve deeper into questions like what prompts men to attack a woman they claim to love and want to marry?
According to a government reply given in Rajya Sabha in 2022, there were 650 reported cases of acid attacks between 2018 to 2020. This is not a small number. What is the mindset behind these staggering numbers? Why man’s sense of entitlement and the urge to treat women as objects which they want to possess is still not controlled despite so much talk about women empowerment. The problem is that we talk about the crime but do not question the murder weapon. I am not just talking about the easy availability of acid which are thrown but also the way Indian families raise boys. The Prime Minister creates Beti Bachao slogan but a leader of his position needs to articulate it better, what is patriarchy and why women are treated like this, he must speak from a feminist perspective.
We must also ask what are the next steps for the survivor in getting her life back? What awaits in her future? Has she has been adequately compensated for the pain and mental agony and the loss of opportunity the crime caused them? Did the government set up special provisions or scheme to help them on their feet by giving jobs or other supports. In the present case, it took 9 years for the survivor to get any sense of justice but is this enough?
