1. You Have No RIGHT To Touch A
Woman: Not With Hands, Not
With ACID
By Anshul Verma

2. • In India it has been said that “Acid attacks on women are
systematic form of gendered sexual violence, these attacks are
used as a weapon to silence and control women by destroying
what is constructed as the primary constituent of her identity
i.e her BODY”
• Acid attacks are now becoming a growing phenomenon in
India, most of the acid attacks have been committed on
women, particularly young women for spurning suitors,
rejecting proposals of marriage, for denying dowry among
other reasons by traumatizing the victim physically,
economically and psychologically for lifetime.

3. The issue raised
• The issue was also raised in the Supreme Court where a
bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha expressed displeasure
by saying that they were not satisfied while directing the
centre to convince in six weeks a meeting of Chief Secretaries
of all states and Union Territories to hold a decision for
enacting a law to regulate the sale of acids and a policy for
treatment, compensation, care and rehabilitation to victims
of acid attacks.

4. The women’s rights
• There is no point in relying on the age old rhetoric which says
that women have a right to wear what they want, where they
go, with whom they go and at what time they go.
• These are the things which have already been established
and accepted by law.
• There cannot even be an iota of compromise in regard to the
aforementioned inalienable rights of women.

5. A few alterations
• First, there is an across the board consensus that the law is
not as stringent as it should be in cases pertaining to acid
attacks, rapes and sexual assaults.
• Acid is readily available costing less than Rs.100 a litre.
• Acid should be made a scheduled banner chemical which
should not be available over the counter.
• Secondly, we need to ponder over as to what gives a slayer
the audacity to do what he does.
• The persons who committed the act must have had
somewhere in their mind the notion that it was impossible for
the police to nab them.
• This is because of the weak judicial system.

6. Sensitization
• It is this anomaly which has to be rectified by means of a well-
coordinated civilized society.
• Of course we want courts, justice, laws but there can never
be a change in the society if we don’t teach our young boys
and men the fact that violence against women is not right.
• SENSITISATION is the only way out; the society should know
that women are not an entity.
• Gender sensitisation should be taught at primary level in
schools altering the mindset of the society.
• Past experiences tell us that such incidents regularly take
place by the virtue of a devastating form of aggression and
grudge, thereby transforming the victim into a figure of
horror and an outcast.

7. • Another important aspect of acid cases is the respectful
resettlement of the acid survivor emphasizing on the societal
trauma which acid victims have to go through.
• Instead of shaming the victim, we should start shaming the
perpetrators of the crime by referring to the cases not by
means of the identity of the girl but by the identity of man.
• This will provide victims with some relief as they are generally
denied employment by misogynists. This nation is also in
need of urgent police reforms.
• Tehelka’s sting operations in Noida effectively proved the
misogyny and prejudice carried by our cops (including female
ones) in relation to women who go through the trauma.

8. The grossest of violence
• Acid attacks can be described as one of the grossest
violations of human rights of women in the Indian society
today.
• I feel that the entrance examinations to services like the
police should include subjective questions on the issue of
gender equity so that the perspectives of the candidates are
clearly brought forth before their appointment and they
should be grilled on the same during the interviews.
• Lastly and most importantly, the bigger question lies in
ensuring the overall safety of women in our country.
• Our country is going through a tumultuous period where we
are evolving from a feudal agricultural society to an advanced
and industrialized one.

9. • This is a painstaking journey which breaks the shackles of
bigotry and parochialism.
• Five decades back in the United States, the African American
community was referred to by means of a harsh four letter
word beginning with the letter ‘N’.
• That practice has now been nearly finished.
• No legislation was passed to do so.
• It’s purely a civilization achievement brought due to
advancement in education and science.
• I expect the same to bring about a radical change in the
attitude of the Indian society in relation to the equality of
sexes.

10. Remember!!
• As far as men are concerned, there is only one piece of advice
which we have for them which has been taken from a recent
write-up of a girl on Tehelka which says, “My body is mine and
you are not allowed to touch it without my permission whoever
you are – friend acquaintance or lover.”

11. • Read more on Youth Ki Awaaz