(written in December 2010)
Acid violence is a particularly vicious and damaging form of violence in Bangladesh where acid is thrown in people’s faces. The overwhelming majority of the victims are women, and many of them are below 18 years of age. The victims are attacked for many reasons. In some cases it is because a young girl or women has spurned the sexual advances of a male or either she or her parents have rejected a proposal of marriage. Recently, however, there have been acid attacks on children, older women and also men. These attacks are often the result of family and land dispute, dowry demands or a desire for revenge.
Consequences
When acid is thrown on a person, the results can be horrifying. Nitric, hydrochloric, or sulfuric acids all have a catastrophic effect on human flesh. It causes the skin tissue to melt, often exposing the bones below the flesh, sometimes even dissolving the bone. When acid attacks the eyes, it damages these vital organs permanently. Many acid attack survivors have lost the use of one or both eyes. The victim is traumatized physically, psychologically and socially.
An acid attack on your body would dramatically change your life. Most survivors of an acid attack are forced to give up their education, their occupation and other important activities in their lives. This is because recovering from the trauma takes up most of their time and because the disfigurement they have to bear debilitates and handicaps them in every conceivable way.
Very often, survivors are permanently blinded and lose the use of their hands, making everyday tasks such as mothering difficult if not impossible. Without assistance, many survivors will be unable to find gainful employment, and even with help, returning to the routines of their previous life will take years. In the meantime, on a day-to-day basis, survivors experience limited endurance and must deal with numerous discomforts such as skin tightness and severe itching.
The psychological scars may be less visible but they are just as real and traumatic. The severe isolation many survivors face as they are ostracised from their communities, lose the ability to earn a living and much of the independence they once enjoyed, causes additional difficulty. Coming to terms with the trauma of the attack, the permanent scarring and disfigurement, and the loss of social acceptance are some of the biggest challenges a survivor will need to overcome.
But the scars left by acid are not just skin deep. In addition to the inevitable psychological trauma, some survivors also face social isolation and ostracism that further damage their self-esteem and seriously undermine their professional and personal futures. Women who have survived acid attacks have great difficulty in finding work and, if unmarried (as many victims tend to be), have very little chance of ever getting married. In a country like Bangladesh this has serious social and economic consequences.
Frequency of these attacks
The first documented case of acid violence was in 1967 when a young girl had acid poured on her by her admirer when his proposal of marriage was refused by her mother. So acid violence is a fairly recent phenomenon, at least in Bangladesh.
It is difficult to obtain accurate statistics because most people in Bangladesh live in rural communities that are relatively isolated and mechanisms to gather information from these communities is weak. But there is evidence to indicate that there is an alarming increase in the number of reported acid attacks incidents in Bangladesh. In 1996, there were 47 reported cases of acid violence. In 1997, the number rose to 130. In 1998, there were over 200 reported cases. It is highly likely that the number of actual cases is considerably higher. In 1999 the Acid Survivors Foundation started to collect data and in its first year documented 139 known cases. It is highly likely that the number of actual cases is higher. From May 1999 to December 2009, as documented by Acid Survivors Foundation, the numbers of incidents were 2326 and numbers of survivors were 2957. The most dangerous year was 2002, when the numbers of incidents were 367 and numbers of survivors were 490.
Until November, the numbers were consequently 106 and 135 for the year 2010. The major victim of attacked is Women(47%) and Men(26%). Children(27%) could not escape from the attack. Sometimes domestic animals or birds are also victimized.
It is often the case that attacks take place in the middle of the night, that a nearby family member is also victim to the attack, and that the victim does not get quick or adequate medical attention despite his or her urgent need of it. Further, maximum of reported acid violence happens to women, with the most common reasons for attack being the refusal of marriage, the denial of sex, and the rejection of romance.
Acid attacks leave victims horribly disfigured. Because most attacks are directed at the face in order to permanently scar the victim and destroy her physical appearance, often times the victim is left blinded. Despite the frequency of acid attacks and the high traumatic acuity of each, acid violence is a little known phenomenon; what little is known has not resulted in substantially improved care nor a decreased prevalence of attacks. Acid violence is among the grossest of human rights violations, and the goal of this examination is to focus the debate and the point of intervention in order to more effectively address the problem.
A Cheap and Available Weapon
A decade ago, acid attacks were committed almost exclusively against women, and only as a crime of vengeance. However, there has been a pronounced increase in acid attacks overall and against men in recent years. Now, nearly 25 percent of reported victims are male. Even the 60 years old is not out of this type of violence.
A cup of acid, usually sulfuric acid poured from any car battery or purchased from auto repair shops, costs only a few taka, and is therefore both a cheap and available weapon. Some perpetrators throw acid in an attempt to obtain the victim’s land, believing that the family will be forced to sell their property in order to pay for medical treatment.
A common myth both within Bangladesh and in the external development community holds acid violence to be permanently and historically engrained in Bangladeshi society. Such a perspective is clearly inconsistent with historical evidence. Acid violence was first identified as a problem in the region of Bangladesh in the 1960s. Although acid attacks may have occurred prior to this time, political turnover and a lack of documentation preclude conclusive evidence. Demystifying the notion of intrinsic acid violence, or even gender inequality more broadly, is a crucial first step to enabling the alleviation of this problem.
Prior to the late 1990s, the lack of an official reporting infrastructure led to inconsistent tracking of acid throwing incidents and made it difficult to trace acid violence as a countrywide phenomenon, even though acid burns were on the Ministry of Health’s list of reportable cases. Tracking the cases should theoretically be very convenient, given that acid violence nearly always necessitates hospitalization and that there are few private facilities in Bangladesh. Although victims sometimes do not see the perpetrator, and at other times do not want to mention his name for fear that he will punish the victim’s family, victims are usually candid in saying that they received the burns from an acid attack.
A Broader Problem
While acid violence is treated here as a specific, isolatable human rights violation, it is part of a broader type of brutality and cruelty prevalent beyond Bangladesh. Despite the growing number of male victims, the majority of acid violence and certainly its historical roots are seen as a component of a broader phenomenon of gender violence.
And although acid violence was initially thought to be a problem endemic to Bangladesh, it is becoming increasingly identified in other South Asian countries. This is consistent with a broader sphere of gender violence. In India, 174 cases were reported in 2000, a per capita incidence of about 1/15 that of Bangladesh, but an absolute number approaching those of Bangladesh. It has been detected also in Pakistan, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.
Legal Remedy:
The Government of Bangladesh publicly acknowledged the problem of acid violence, and in 2002 enacted two new laws against acid violence.
- The Acid Control Act to regulate the import, export, use and waste management of corroding substances.
- The Acid Crime Control Act to reduce the period of investigation to a mandatory maximum 60 days, and acid violence related cases are now tried by the Acid Tribunal Court where there is a directory instruction to complete the case within 90 days.
National Acid Control Council (NACC) is mandated to develop policies and monitoring systems for the production, trade and deposit of acid and to develop medical, rehabilitation and legal support services for the victims of acid violence. Accordingly District Acid Control Committees (DACC) work to implement the decisions of NACC.
On an average, cases are now completed in lower courts within a year. The law gave victims the right to obtain a medical certificate from any recognized hospital.
Despite enactment of the new laws to combat acid violence, it is estimated that very few of the attackers are ever punished. The victims are usually poor, illiterate and frightened of the time-consuming and complicated legal system.
Where the solution?
Acid violence is another horrible chapter in the book of human rights abuses in Bangladesh. The NGO efforts launched in the 1990s have led to significant gains in public awareness campaigns and medical treatment, as well as contributed to the creation of an environment of concern, sympathy, and compassion. One especially positive aspect of efforts against acid violence is that Bangladeshis, especially women, have been a strong driving force against them. In a society that has historically oppressed women, it is encouraging to see men vigorously campaigning against a crime that predominantly affects women.
Nonetheless, it is concerning that the work of NGOs has not resulted in a significant decrease in the annual number of attacks in the past several years. This is clearly an indication of the complexity of the problem rather than an implication of unworthy efforts against it. While the recent increase in the number of convictions is encouraging, Bangladesh still suffers from a poorly trained police force and a backlogged court system, both rife with corruption. Therefore, most perpetrators still go unpunished. If history is a lesson, a marked decrease in acid attacks will not occur until the Bangladeshi police and legal systems become more quick and effective, the prerequisite for which is probably a revolution at the heart of the Bangladeshi political system.
All data is taken from Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF)
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