&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph"><strong>SHAINA SHARMA &vert; <&sol;strong>JALANDHAR<br><br>Acid attack is a vitriol crime&comma; involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body&comma; with the intention of disfigure&comma; torture&comma; revenge or murder&period; An acid attack can leave the victim with burning faces&comma; damaging tissues&comma; often exposing&comma; sometimes damaging bones&comma; even leading to permanent blindness and leaving a mark of tort which never gets out of mind&period;<br><br><em>Why…Why me&quest; <&sol;em>This is what comes to the mind of an acid attack survivor&period; Laxmi Agarwal is an acid attack survivor and a campaigner for rights of acid victims&period; It was because of her only that the issue of acid attack came into notice and a strict action was taken&period; Recently&comma; the movie &OpenCurlyQuote;Chhapaak’&comma; which is mainly based on her afterlife of the acid attack has released&period; The film talks about&comma; how she fought&comma; won and succeeded in leading one of her petitions in the Supreme Court about the regulation of the sale of acid&period;<br><br>However&comma; there are plethora of cases like Laxmi in India&period; According to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau&comma; between 2014 to 2018 there have been 1&comma;483 victims of acid attacks in the country&period; Which means that India has seen almost 1&comma;500 acid attacks in the last five years&period;<br><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Another such story is of <strong>Daljeet Kaur<&sol;strong> of Punjab&period; Here is a part of interaction done with her&period;<br><br><strong>What’s your story&quest;<&sol;strong><br><strong>Ans&colon;-<&sol;strong> After completing 12<sup>th <&sol;sup>standard&comma; I thought of studying privately and joined Apex Hospital at Nadala in October 2009&period; It became a routine of going to the hospital at eight in the morning and returning back to home at five in the evening&period; I was allotted alternate weeks of day shift and night shift&period; I used to travel with only one particular bus called SHUBHAM &lpar;green color&rpar;&period; <br>On January 10&comma; 2010 when I reached hospital&comma; I saw a man running and thought he has someone close admitted in the hospital that’s why he’s in a hurry&period; Suddenly he came near and splashed acid on me&period; In shock and pain&comma; I tried to run away from him but he grabbed me strongly and again poured acid on me&period;<br>My condition was devastating but somehow I took myself to the hospital&comma; the staff gathered and started my treatment immediately&period; I filed a case but the police was not able to trace the criminals&period; Even after one year&comma; the criminals were nowhere to be found&period;<br>Then I took my case to the high court and pleaded to transfer my case to the police of any other district&period; My case was transferred to the Jalandhar police&period; After that&comma; criminals were found and arrested&comma; in May 2011&period; As the case was investigated&comma; a shocking revelation came in that the attacker had to pour acid on some other girl&comma; who used to travel through the same bus and I was mistaken as that girl&period; <br>I guess it was my bad luck that day&comma; that I was at the wrong place in the wrong time&period; However&comma; be it me or any other girl this was a crime that can’t be forgiven&period; <br><br><strong>Whom do you blame for this&quest;<&sol;strong><br><strong>Ans&colon;-<&sol;strong> I clearly blame system for this&period; Why acid is available so easily&comma; in the market&quest; If there would have been rigid rules about sale of acid&comma; then survivors like me could have been saved&period; <br><br><strong>How difficult was it to restart your life&quest; <&sol;strong><br><strong>Ans&colon;-<&sol;strong> Yes&comma; it was very difficult but I never lost hope&period; My parents were the major reason that I held on hope&period; They’ve always been there for me&period;<br><br><strong>In such cases many victims lose motivation in life and sit at home&comma; pitying themselves&period; How did you motivate yourself&quest;<&sol;strong><br><strong>Ans&colon;-<&sol;strong> My parents are my motivation&comma; infact they are everything for me&period; If they haven’t helped or supported me then I might not be standing here alive&period;<br><br><strong>Mention those people who supported you at every step in your life and especially in this case&period;<&sol;strong><br><strong>Ans&colon;-<&sol;strong> Ofcourse&comma; my parents&period; They’ve been through this journey&comma; with me&period;<br><br><strong>Any message for every girl and Acid Attack Survivors&quest;<&sol;strong><br><strong>Ans&colon;- <&sol;strong>I just want to say that they have poured acid on our face not on our dreams&period; So don’t ever let yourself down&period; Be a fighter and always stand for yourself&period;<br><br><strong>Anything you want to say about movie Chhapaak&quest;<&sol;strong><br><strong>Ans&colon;-<&sol;strong> I’m going to watch the movie tomorrow&comma; in Chandigarh&period; Thanks a lot to them&comma; that they have thought of raising this issue in their film&period; I hope&comma; that people will now get to know the suffering of acid attack survivors like me&comma; through this movie&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punjabibulletin&period;in&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;01&sol;Screenshot&lowbar;20200112&lowbar;175132&period;png" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-747"&sol;><figcaption>Daljeet Kaur after the Acid Attack<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Another victim like Lakshmi&comma; <strong>Ruby<&sol;strong> had to pay for rejecting a psycho lover&period;&nbsp&semi;<br>It was December 8&comma; 2011&comma; her birthday&comma; when she was attacked by Manjeet Singh with acid in her village Marauli Kalan&comma; near Mohali&period; This crime followed when Inderjeet Kaur &lpar;Ruby&rpar; rejected Manjeet&&num;8217&semi;s marriage proposal&period; The acid attack brought her life to a standstill&period; Not just her skin&comma; Ruby lost her eyesight too&period; However&comma; all this could not hamper her will power&period; After the attack she fought a long battle against acid attacks&period; Her persistence pushed a petition before the Punjab and Haryana high court which led to the formulation of policies providing financial assistance to the survivors in both states&period;<br><br>Now&comma; at the age of 30&comma; this brave heart is working as a clerk in Canara Bank&comma; Delhi office&period; Though&comma; her fight was not an easy one at all&period; Except her mother&comma; no other relative&comma; not even her brother supported her in the fight against the perpetrators&period; She had to leave her studies and bear the brunt of the attack for a long time&period; The villagers in her vicinity passed comments on her like she is a burden on her family and society&period; Ruby was socially isolated as if she was the criminal&period;<br><br>Then&comma; she decided to join National Institute for Visually Handicapped in Dehradun&period; Prior to the attack&comma; Ruby had planned to complete MA and PhD and then work for a private company&period; But after the ordeal&comma; she decided to unfurl a whole new opportunity in her life&period; She learned about reading techniques using audio recordings and eventually&comma; she graduated in it&period; Since then&comma; she started off with competitive banking service examinations and she finally cleared the test in her third attempt in June 2018&period; She was then selected for the visually impaired category and was posted in Delhi&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 3&period;0&period;5&period;1 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad35905 " id&equals;"quads-ad35905" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;text-align&colon;center&semi;padding&colon;0px 0 0px 0&semi;" data-lazydelay&equals;"3000">&NewLine;<amp-ad layout&equals;"fixed" width&equals;300 height&equals;250 type&equals;"adsense" data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-1861488811465739" data-ad-slot&equals;"4911303569"><&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punjabibulletin&period;in&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;01&sol;Screenshot&lowbar;20200112&lowbar;175001&period;png" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-748" width&equals;"655" height&equals;"467"&sol;><figcaption>Ruby before and after the Acid Attack<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">If you think only one community or gender is targeted&comma; then you are totally wrong&period; There are many more cases like – Pragya Singh&comma; Daulat Bi Khan&comma; Anmol Rodriguez&comma; Chandrahass Mishra and Firoz Khan&comma; who have been attacked for lending a helping hand&period; Some were attacked for rejecting marriage proposals like Laxmi and Ruby and some were attacked for the mistaken identity like Daljeet Kaur&period; Some were punished for being from lower cast and some for just being a girl&period;<br>It’s a high time to break your silence because <em>&num;AbLadnaHai<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">NOTE&colon; if you want to stay updated with latest news&comma; click <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;chat&period;whatsapp&period;com&sol;Fb9tOwA2fVfLyWX0sBTcdM">here<&sol;a> to join our whatsapp group<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 3&period;0&period;5&period;1 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad96551 " id&equals;"quads-ad96551" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px 3px 3px 3px&semi;padding&colon;0px 0px 0px 0px&semi;" data-lazydelay&equals;"3000">&NewLine;<amp-ad layout&equals;"fixed" width&equals;300 height&equals;250 type&equals;"adsense" data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-1861488811465739" data-ad-slot&equals;"6110719604"><&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;p>&NewLine;