With acid attack crimes witnessing an over four-fold increase in the last five years, the National Commission for Women under the Ministry of Woman and Child Development is pushing for the inclusion of ‘victims of acid attack’ under the disabled category.
Data with the Government shows that the number of acid attack victims has been steadily increasing - from 80 in 2010 to 106 in 2011 and 2012 to 116 in 2013 and 349 in 2014.
NCW chairperson lalitha Kumaraswamy has taken up the matter of including acid attack victims under the disabled category with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“We have held a few meetings with Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the issue of inclusion of the acid attack victims under the disabled category, where he has given a verbal consent but a legal process has to be adopted,” said Kumaraswamy.
“Acid attack is by the far the most brutal form of attack, as it not just defaces a person physically, but also takes a huge toll on the person’s finances and destroys one’s livelihood almost completely,” she said
Kuamarswamy said that that the inclusion of acid attack victims in the disabled category would automatically entitle them to reservation benefits, given to the disabled population.
“Most of these victims want to be financially secure. Their inclusion in the disabled category will entitle them to a three per cent reservation in public sector jobs, which will help them become self sustainable. They deserve to live a life of dignity,” she said.
Data with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCR, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarkhand leading in terms of notoriety. A broader break up shows that the northern India region has the highest incidence of acid violence accounting for 58 per cent of the attacks, followed by eastern India (18%), western Region (16%) and Southern Region (8%).
Among the States of northern India, Uttar Pradesh had a total of 234 incidents of acid attacks followed by 104 attacks in Delhi and 38 in Punjab between 2010 and 2014.