Acid attacks on girls up in Kanpur

KANPUR: Eve teasing, rape, dowrydeaths and what have you. Women are being harassed and tortured no end.Incidentally, the fair sex of the city are being subjected to a new kind ofsuffering __ acid attacks.Over the last seven months, there were half adozen such cases, but only two have been registered with the police. Anothersocial stigma. The victims are either mortally scared of the consequences or donot want publicity of any kind.They are helpless. And their helplessnessis being taken note of by the UP Mahila Manch which has decided to launch ahelpline for the victims. “The groundwork is complete and our activistteams are ready for action soon after we launch the helpline in the first weekof August,“ said Neelam Chaturvedi, president of the manch.In theopinion of the Manch, consumerism has distorted the thinking of men and theyhave started taking women as a consumer product. Chaturvedi said we still have amale dominated society where any refusal for marriage or friendship hurts theego of the chauvinist male. She added: “They can go up to any extent tosatisfy their id�.Last week, in Colonel area, a man threw acid onhis wife when she failed to fulfill his demand for dowry. On June 8 inSutarkhana area, a boy barged into the house of a girl and threw acid on herwhen she was asleep. Her fault: she did not want to marry him. In Unnao alsothere was a similar case two months ago when a frustrated lover poured acid onhis cousin who had refused to marry him. In fact, the city’s first evercase of acid being used to take revenge was reported on January 20, 2000 when acollege boy Abhinav had attacked Arti Srivastava with acid in Civil Lines area.Art’s fault was that she had refused to accept his friendship. Abhinavconsidered it an insult and took the drastic step. The case is still inprogress.After this gruesome attack, several colleges imposed dress codefor the girls.“It is ridiculous to hold girls responsible for the crimeagainst them. “See all the acid victims, they all are very simple girls.None of them was wearing jeans or mini skirt,� said Savita Mishra, JwalaDevi college principal. A psychiatrist says that the psyche of the boys is todestroy the physical beauty of the girls so that they cant’ marry anotherboy.