State and Societal Responses to Acid Attacks:A Normative Approach

Violence against women is the most widespread and the worst form of human rights violation of our generation. Today, acid attacks have emerged as a grave concern for women's safety across the world including the Indian Subcontinent. As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2010, a total of 57 cases with 65 victims were recorded, which in 2012 rose to 85 cases with 101 victims. Delhi, UP, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar together accounted for 53% of all the victims. In 2016, there were 206 incidents of acid attack on women with a staggering number of 225 victims. Out of 29 states, acid attacks were reported in 17 states with 187 incidents and 202 victims. In this hindsight, the first part discusses the Global and Indian statistics on Acid Attack cases. It also highlights the direct and indirect causes of Acid Attack. The second part relates to the primary (personal & psychological response) and secondary victimization (societal response) suffered by the victim. The third part deals with current responses of the various governmental authorities like Law Commission of India as well as recent Supreme Court judgments particularly Laxmi v. Union of India (2014) and Parivartan Kendra v. Union of India (2015). The last part deals with various reforms having different underlying philosophies like Prevention, Deterrence, Reformation, Social Transformation, etc.