Acid Throwing

Acid throwing is a terrorist activity which results in grave consequences. It is one of the most heinous crimes. Nowadays it has become a major concern in our country. Almost everyday we find the news of acid throwing in all the national dailies of our country. Mostly women fall victim to it. It results from multifarious causes, especially from the rejected love-offer.

In most cases this heinous crime is committed by the rejected lovers who think that it is their usual right to get their love proposals fulfilled. But they forget that the girl has also the same human right to reject such a proposal if it displeases her. It may be committed by a dowry hunting husband. In our country greedy husband and their relatives ask a great amount of dowry from their wives and if their fathers fall to meet their demand, the unfortunate poor girls fall victim to acid throwing. Sometimes, husbands demand movable and immovable property from their fathers-in-law and other near relatives of their wives. Generally girls do not want to bring or sell their poor fathers or relative’s property for their husbands. But selfish husbands insist them more and more and in failure they do not hesitate to throw acid to their wives.

Even children, the epitome of innocence and divine beauty cannot escape from the clutches of the acid throwers. Women, girls as their guardians are always anxious about the miscreants. They cannot go out alone and even if they do so, they are apprehensive of probable mishaps that may befall them at any time.

The girl or woman who becomes the victim of acid throwing may die or has to drag a miserable existence of she survives. Acid damages the part of the body where it falls and gives the victim an indescribable feeling of pain and anguish. It takes a long time to recover it. It burns the place and deforms the appearance, sometimes the victim turns blind. Though the victim however, recovers from physical pain, the painful experience can never be forgotten.

 Generally, acid is thrown as a step of revenge. It is a crime not only against women but also against the whole humanity. It is more barbarous and ruthless than killing. A person killed once is out of all worldly pangs and sufferings, while an acid survivor has to survive constantly undergoing tremendous physical, psychological, and social torments. So acid throwing should be stopped at any cost.

To avoid acid throwing, the availability of acid must be made restricted and difficult. At present anyone can go and buy acid from the market. The policy regarding its import and sale is being ignored by businessmen to make quick profit at any cost. In recent years acid has been used for most trivial reasons and it is carried openly from one place to another. As a result, there occur accidents causing loss of precious lives. The govt. must take strict decisions so that the sale of acid is restricted.

Treatment and rehabilitation facilities for acid victims must be improved. In an effort to provide medical care for the acid victims, the govt. has established a burn unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Being the only such facility in the country of 130 million people it is at present inaccessible to victims. Long delays in medical care have hampered recovery of the most of the victims.

We should from women Repression Preventive Committee in every village or ward of the town.

 The committee should be careful about the desperate young men. They may hold meetings once every month on this topic and if any such occurrence takes place anywhere, they should hand over the criminal to the police. Moreover, strict and exemplary punishment, with death sentence to the culprits, must be enforced. At present some NGOs offer counseling, skills training and there rehabilitation programmers to help su8rvigvors reintegrate into society.

It is a matter of great regret that although we have reports of acid throwing in other countries too, the number of incidents is probably the highest in Bangladesh. The criminals show no mercy in throwing acid to a dface3 that they loved a few days ago. There must be public awareness coupled with the concern that throwing acid to others is to throw it to oneself. Some criminals are destroying the image of Bangladesh. We cannot let the world think that we are a barbaric people. For too long, the matter has not been dealt with seriously. Let us hope that the criminals will be brought to book and the victims her all the support they need.