Intro: To commemorate the third anniversary of 'Stop Acid Attacks' campaign, 'Chhanv' has launched calendar featuring the victims of dire attacks.
“The idea was generated from the debate on the true meaning of beauty and society's present mindset of understanding the definition of beauty and misjudging those who have somehow lost their physical beauty,” explains, one of the members of Chhanv, a voluntary organisation working against acid attacks.
Nothing like typical calendars, the calendar under the title ‘Bello’ features 12 acid attack victims, beginning from the month of March 2015 and ends on February 2016. The photos of the acid attack victims depict their dreams which have been shattered because of the atrocious attack. The campaigners have emerged with a 'Reach out Mission' to document around 300 acid attack survivors to reintegrate them into the mainstream society. It is learnt that the funds generated by the sale of the calendar would be employed for the treatment of the acid attack survivors in India.
Incidents of acid attacks are repeatedly increasing in India. It has ruined many lives. A question arises in my mind: Is outlawing acid the only answer to check such attacks? If government bans acid, people would try to find another alternative. Would it not be better to educate the people and to tell them the drawbacks of such attacks? Sadly, it's not a matter of creating laws and its execution on selling and buying of acid. It's the manifestation of our ethnic thought in which a loser has to take revenge after his failure. What we need is to change this state of mind. We shouldn't think of it that a person who throws acid on woman faces by and large always runs from small bony lanes. It is the distinctive case of a nation like Pakistan.
If one leaves you in the middle of a relationship or you have a bitter relationship with a person, it doesn’t mean that you will deface her or his face. It’s a pity that in 21st century despite of the fact that the people are well-educated they are ready to deface a person’s face. This shows the animal tendency of such people.
In our society, women are demoralised but this kind of episode alarms everyone. This highly toxic stuff is so easily available that even a teenager can purchase it and no one really checks him. The solution is just ban the common toxic harmful liquids and acids in the local markets and must be diluted to the level that they cannot damage the humans.
Although acid attacks in general are rare as compared to suicide, a time would come when a teenager would throw acid on his parents also on pity issues if no strict action is taken. The mess with our country is that everyone is a freaking and startling observer.
One who throws acid on a person is condemnable regardless of the gender. We must change the state of mind of people. Crime can not be eliminated from society if people do not change their mindset. Any kind of crime can be stamped out from the nation when the person thinks that crime is just malevolence. We need to scrutinise people on this issue.
Mithun Dey (The writer is a senior columnist)
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