WUNRN
India
K. Venkataramanan
K. T. Sangameswaran
The Hindu
February 24, 2013 - India is among a handful of countries that
witness the maximum number of horrific acid attacks on women. The male perpetrators
disfigure women as a form of revenge. They get hold of the corrosive chemical
without difficulty, and have little fear of the law. The victims die a hundred
deaths
Earlier this month,
the Supreme Court pulled up the Union government for failing to come up with a
comprehensive and effective law to deal with growing incidents of acid attacks.
The court expected a piece of legislation that also deals with treatment, care
and rehabilitation of victims, and regulates the free sale of acid. This has not
happened for the last seven years when the matter has been pending before the
court.
The case has been
filed by an acid attack survivor from
The Centre has talked
about the Union Home Secretary writing to the Ministry of Chemicals and
Fertilizers to find out whether an expert group could be formed to bring forth
a law to ban the free sale of acid.
A concrete sign of
progress in law-making has been the recent ordinance on violence against women,
which, among other provisions, included two new sections in the Indian Penal
Code (Sections 326A, which prescribes a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of
life imprisonment for deadly acid attacks that leave the victims grievously
injured and causing severe permanent or partial damage and disability, and
Section 326B that makes plans and attempts to fling acid on another punishable
with a jail term of between five and seven years with fine). Besides, Section
326A also envisages a fine that can go up to Rs. 10 lakh and the amount should
go to the victim.
The recent murder of
Vinodhini, a victim of acid attack, has brought the focus back on the need for
effective monitoring and regulation. With acids being available in the market,
for purposes ranging from painting, use in car batteries, in de-weeding and as
floor-cleaning substances, they easily fall in the hands of those who want to
wreak vengeance.
The rules governing
the sale of acids are not being implemented at all, says Manikandan Vathan
Chettiar, a Chennai advocate, who has filed a writ petition on behalf of a
human rights group seeking enforcement of the Explosives Act.
Unlicensed,
over-the-counter sale of acids should be banned immediately, he says. Going a
step further, the petitioner, Shanthi, State coordinator of the Citizens for
Human Rights Movement, Erode, says that in all acid attack cases, the origin of
the chemical should be traced and the vendors prosecuted.
Mr. Vathan Chettiar
says acids fall within the meaning of “explosives” and hence should be governed
by the Explosives Act.
The Act says the
Centre may make rules to regulate or prohibit, except under and in accordance
with the conditions of a licence granted as provided by those rules, the
manufacture, possession, use, sale and transport of explosives or any specified
class of explosives. But the rules remain only on paper.
The Law Commission, in its 226th report, noted that regular inspections and stock-checking by authorities are limited to explosives and not acids. Acids are specifically mentioned only in the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Substances Rules, but these pertain mainly to the way they are handled in the industry and in transit. There is nothing in these rules concerning sales.
In South Asia, Only
Bangladesh has a law, the Acid Control Act, 2002.