India: Victims Urge New Laws For Acid Attacks

Human rights groups in India say changes to the rape laws do not go far enough to deal with the dramatic rise in acid attacks on women.

New legislation has been passed following the gang rape of a student in Delhi in 2012 which has increased the punishment for acid attacks - but campaigners say the horrific nature of the crime means it needs its own specific legislation.

Over the last decade the number of women being targeted with chemicals has grown.

Hydrochloric, sulphuric and nitric acid can be bought at any hardware store without any questions asked.

The chemicals are frequently used by men to attack women - leaving them with the most terrible, life-changing injuries.

Sonali Mukherjee, 27, had acid thrown in her face by a spurned suitor.

She lost her sight and most of her skin and says she has now been rejected by society because of her injuries.

Incredibly her attacker has still not been brought to justice nine years after the crime was committed.

"After this attack everything is destroyed. My life is completely changed. I become blind. I could not see, I could not eat, I could not walk. I feel very pained.

"I feel very depressed - my ambition is destroyed, my hope is destroyed, my everything is destroyed."

Campaign group Stop Acid Attacks accuses the government of ignoring the growing trend of chemical assaults despite widespread calls for greater protection of women.

Activist Assem Trivedi says as well as the regulation of the sale of acid, new laws need to be urgently framed which deal specifically with the crime.

"If I chuck acid on her face I am destroying her whole life. I am giving her lifetime injuries so I think we should not deal with acid attacks as we deal with any other physical assault case. It is completely different because it is so much worse."

The gang-rape and murder of a student in Delhi in 2012 and the protests which followed have provoked soul searching on the way women are treated in India.

A recent UN report claimed India is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be born a woman. Sexual assaults, dowry, honour killings, acid attacks and female infanticide - because of a preference for sons - are common crimes females face on a daily basis.

Ms Mukherjee is now looked after by her father and says whatever the government does it will not be enough without major cultural changes and a great deal of education.

"I don't know the future of women in India. Nobody here is safe; women in villages and towns and even in the capital city, they are not safe - God save us."

Unless there is greater equality between the sexes, she says women will always be victims in India.