Acid Violence: A Social Concern in context to Bangladesh

Acid violence is a particular form of violence where acid is deliberately thrown in women’s faces to have them physically victimized, mentally traumatized and socially isolated.
As legal protection, in Bangladesh, some laws are adopted and also have efforts to apply and bring the criminals into books. Whether theses are adequate and properly applied? As per Bangladesh penal code, the punishment to the perpetrators of acid throwing may be sentenced to 7 to 12 year rigorous imprisonment or even death. So far, 30 persons have been convicted but none of them is undergoing punishment due to their appeal to the higher courts. Besides about 300 cases are now pending in the lower courts. Most of the cases are not being properly investigated due to inefficiency and corruption of the police people. On the other hand plaintiffs are not getting proper justice owing to the lengthy process in the judiciary. Acid is very easily available in the country. Law to control and monitor sale of acid is yet to be framed.

A recent Asian conference held in Dhaka city
discovered that people in at least 10 countries including India, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh are victimized in acid violence.

Along with legal actions, medical and social rehabilitation of the survivors is equally important. Most of the survivors are helpless women and children, who require in average at least 1 year for recovery. In one hand the patient requires to stay in Dhaka for treatment and, on the other, the patient is to remain hiding for personal safety so that the criminals can not attack them again or inflict injury. In second phase, victims need social rehabilitation through counseling, capacity building and job placement. Development organizations, media and private sector have efforts leading to a significant level of progress in this domain. Albeit rehabilitation is urgent as a post-incidence action, but early measures are appropriate and key to combating the violence.