Acid attack victims in Delhi are not getting the money meant for them

The Supreme Court had in 2015 directed states to control and regulate the sale of acid in retail shops, and had also asked the Centre to intervene.

In Delhi, on paper, one needs a licence to sell acid. A buyer is supposed to produce an identity proof and a reason to buy acid.

In 2016, the Delhi Commission for Women sent teams across the city to buy acid and were able to get it from 23 shops without showing an identity card. The commission then wrote to the Delhi government to the government highlighting the lack of monitoring on the ground.

The responsibility to conduct checks on the ground falls on the area sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs). They also have the power to fine non-conforming retailers up to Rs 50,000 if they are not licensed and are not asking for photo IDs of the people they sell to.

In October this year, DCW came out with another report which showed that very few inspections and raids had been conducted since 2017.

“SDM East, North, New Delhi, North East and Shahdara District did not impose any penalties since 2017. The West district collected the maximum penalty – Rs 9,90,000 in the past six years. North West district imposed a penalty of only Rs 20,000. Penalty amount of Rs 36.5 lakh collected since 2017 in Delhi has not been used for rehabilitation of acid attack survivors,” it stated.

DCW sought an action taken report from the Divisional Commissioner, who the DMs and the SDMs in Delhi report to.

“After our report, the Divisional Commissioner submitted a response 15 days ago saying that a monthly review meeting will be conducted with all districts on the issue and photos of the raids conducted will be sent to the Divisional Commissioner. It also said that a rehabilitation policy was being formulated to decide how money is supposed to be given to the victims. Till that happens, the corpus collected cannot be used,” said DCW chief Swati Maliwal.

She, however, believes that a change in the law is mandatory to deal with the problem effectively. “The retail sale of acid needs to be banned completely. If you give sellers and buyers a leeway, the process will be misused. We also need to have a penal provision of prison, and not just a fine, for selling acid. Bangladesh came out with a stricter law on the sale and purchase of acid, as well as for attacks, and they have seen an impact. We need to do something similar,” she said.