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New Delhi: Ritu Saini (19), a state-level volleyball player, gave up her sport in 2012 after she was attacked with acid. She lost an eye and her skin still burns in sunlight. Indomita- ble, Ritu says mourning what she has lost would mean capit- ulation. Her goal is now a job and setting an example of suc- cess before society. At a three-day legal confer- ence on violence against wom- en organized by Human Rights Law Network, over 15 acid at- tack survivors from across the nation discussed strategies with legal experts to ensure justice, compensation and re- habilitation for themselves and others who have suffered the same horror. On Saturday, Ritu and Rupa (21), who was al- legedly attacked by her step- mother with acid, were seen bonding as they recounted the stories of their individual trag- edies and fights. But they have more sisters- in-arms and their experiences are terrible to hear as well as oddly moving. Siblings Chan- chal (19) and Sonam Paswan (16) were attacked when they were sleeping on the terrace of their house in Patna in 2012. It was a man who had proposed marriage to Chanchal and whom she had turned down. “He was angry because I re- fused him. I haven’t received any compensation,” said Chanchal who is in Class XI. She is gutsy and prepared to fight back. “I wear glares and cover my head with a stole when I go to computer class. People mock me saying Aish- warya Rai has arrived, but I ig- nore them,” she said. Chanchal was accompanied by her father Sailesh Paswan who works as construction labourer. “No amount of compensation can bring back what these girls have lost. They need jobs and a secure life now,” he said. The discussions by lawyers specializing in such cases at the conference reflected the im- punity of the culprits and gen- der bias even among judges. Most of these survivors have not received the full compensa- tion amount they are entitled to and almost all accused have been granted bail. The medical facilities to deal with these cases continue to be abysmal even in cities. Chanchal waited an entire day before she re- ceived proper medical help. Acid had burnt 28% of her body. The criminal case she fil- ed was stalled. She still needs several corrective surgeries. For Haseena Hussain, it’s not just fighting such brutal vi- olence but inherent gender bi- as and stereotypes. She re- counts how many people say ‘she was beautiful’ as if her ex- istence is only about her ap- pearance. Haseena lost her vi- sion after an attack in 1999 by a man whose sexual advances she had rejected. There are of- ten extremely patriarchal un- dertones in the way even mem- bers of the judicial community respond to cases, says Sheela Ramanathan, a lawyer. HRLN lawyers from Harya- na, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi discussed legal developments in India and abroad in acid at- tack cases. Later in the day, health rights activist Mira Shi- va chaired a panel talk includ- ing doctors from Safdarjung Hospital, psychiatrist from Sant Parnanand Hospital Dr Rani Bhatia and plastic sur- geons from Ram Manohar Lo- hia Hospital on cosmetic sur- gery options, physiotherapy and counselling services avail- able to survivors. Lawyers formed a national network that will soon recom- mend to the government a plan of action comprising liveli- hood opportunity, strategies for legal intervention and com- pensation. Parivartan Kendra, a Dalit rights organization from Bihar, has filed a public interest litigation to ensure comprehensive rehabilitation for acid attack survivors. Sisters-In-Arms Brainstorm Legal Strategy, Share Tales Of Triumph And Loss Acid attack survivors fight back HOW LAW DEALS WITH IT Best practices | Bangladesh enacted Acid Offences Prevention Act and Acid Control Act in 2002 that ban open sale of acid and allow for death penalty in certain cases Legal provisions Section 326A of IPC After Nirbhaya case and Justice Verma committee report, these provisions were made in IPC ➤Right to self-defence in case of acid attack ➤5 to 7 years of jail and fine ➤IPC now spells out “acid attack”, which used to be considered under “grievous hurt” Restricting acid sale ➤Supreme Court, after hearing Laxmi Aggarwal’s case, restricted acid sale across the country ➤Lawyers and activists are pushing for more stringent regulations on sale of acid Jayashree. Nandi@timesgroup.com * SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI JULY 13, 2014 6 TIMES CITY Published for the Proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., by Balraj Arora at Times House, 7,Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi -110002 and printed by him at Times Of India Press, 13, Site IV, Industrial Area, Sahibabad (UP), and at Plot No. 254-257, Industrial Area, Phase ll, Panchkula, Haryana. Regd . Office,: Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji Road, Mumbai-400001. Editor (Delhi Market) : Neelam Raaj – responsible for selection of news under PRB Act, @ All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of Publisher is prohib- ited RNI NO : 50787/90 Air Charge : Ahemdabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Nagpur & via Rs.5.00, Leh Rs.2.00, Price in Nepal : NEP Rs.15.00. MADE IN NEW DELHI Vol. 25 No. 28. New Delhi: Six years ago, Ru- pa’s stepmother poured acid on her face as she slept early one August morning. Now 21, the acid attack survivor is getting ready to set up her own bou- tique and auction the clothes she has designed. In a shelter for acid attack survivors in east Delhi’s Laksh- mi Nagar where Rupa current- ly lives, she now has two man- nequins and a stitching machine for compa- ny. She has already designed and stitched five dresses, including black evening gowns and sheer billo- wy kurtas, and aims to make another 15 in two months, so that she can finally hold an auc- tion-exhibition. After the Stop Acid Attacks campaign in the capital ad- vanced her cause on social media, she has managed to raise close to Rs 57,000 online, and has also found prospective buyers. “Some students of fash- ion design have also offered their services,” says Rupa, who goes by her first name and be- longs to Islampur Ghasoli vil- lage of Muzaffarnagar. If things seem to fall in place, it is only after an arduous struggle. “When my father re- married, his wife was not aware of my existence. She knew only about my baby brother. She was al- ways vio- lent with the two of us,” says Rupa, whose family withdrew her from school when she was still in Class VI. “They said I might as well help them with housework,” recalls Rupa, who has had 11 reconstructive sur- geries on her face. “My father refused to get me treated if I pressed charges against my stepmother. But I was deter- mined. My uncle helped me file a complaint and get medical help. I had been living with him before I moved to Chhanv (the shelter),” says Rupa, who has severed contact with her father. Her stepmother is out on bail now after serving a year and a half in prison. Rupa's uncle, a barber in Fa- ridabad, has no inkling of her latest project. She also took vo- cational classes but discontin- ued under social pressure. “My uncle's family was facing a lot of criticism. The neighbours would ask what I was doing out all day. People would question me as well. It was too much. Al- so, I couldn't balance the chores at home with the classes. Here I can do that,” says Rupa, who is being mentored by a Stop Acid Attacks volunteer Atul Kumar Singh and founder Alok Dixit. An engineer by education, Singh says he is helping Rupa with the cuts and designs of her dresses. “Her designs keep im- proving with every outfit,” says Singh. Rupa is still over- whelmed at being encouraged to dream so big and is taking one step at a time. “It was all Alok's idea—setting up a store. I just enjoy stitching. That's all,” she says. Laxmi, an acid attack survi- vor and activist, says Rupa’s at- tempts to enter the mainstream are unique. “The mental trau- ma they suffer makes it diffi- cult for them to have any ambi- tion. A lot of them are also very young, so they don’t know what they want in life. Rupa had al- ways been interested in stitch- ing, so this talent could be devel- oped,” says Laxmi. Trauma behind, she’s a dress designer now WOMEN OF STEEL: Chanchal Paswan, Ritu and Rupa at the conference Anindya Chattopadhyay PROFILES IN COURAGE Kim.Arora@timesgroup.com New Delhi: The capital may be observing grid discipline but residents will continue to pay for lapses by neighbour- ing states. Every year during peak summer, all northern states struggle to keep pace with the demand. Delhi was in a crisis last month with multi- ple transmission lines trip- ping and grid-related issues right in the middle of a heat- wave. This led to outages across the city for several days. To assess what went wrong, Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) has submitted a re- port to CERC on issues related to grid security. A major component of the report is the implementation and progress of demand man- agement protocols like rota- tional load shedding and de- mand response to reduce overdrawal in the Northern Grid. Delhi is the only state in the northern region to have an automatic demand man- agement scheme that main- tains grid frequency band- with within a given range. “As of February 17, 2014, the oper- ational frequency band of the grid is 49.9Hz to 50.05Hz and deviations can be detrimental to the grid,” said an official. ADMS was conceived for grid security and reliability, and would check attempts by any state to overdraw beyond the safety range. Despite several reminders by NRLDC, the other north- ern region (NR) constituent- s—Punjab, Haryana, Rajas- than, J&K, HP, UP and Uttarakhand—don’t have this scheme in place, the report said. Officials said this scheme was critical for con- trolling the demand of states based on availability. ADMS was mandated by a CERC or- der but states failed to comply. When grid security became a recurring issue, NRLDC pet- itioned CERC on December 18, 2013 on the lack of demand management schemes which led to many states overdraw- ing from the grid. “NRLDC said the NR meets maximum demand during summer/ monsoon months and there- fore a proper arrangement for meeting and managing as well as handling network con- gestion was important,’’ said the report. The failure of other states to have this system has reper- cussions for Delhi as the grid is interconnected and over- drawal by any state affects all the constituents. “Often, Del- hi has to curtail its drawal and resort to load shedding be- cause neighbouring states were not complying with the regulations. Neighbours draw more, starve Delhi of power CAPITAL CRISIS Richi.Verma@timesgroup.com New Delhi: In a brazen strike near the office of the deputy commissioner of police in Ra- jouri Garden, west Delhi, 11 armed men robbed a car car- rying Rs 40 lakh cash after shooting at and injuring its driver on Saturday morning. The robbers, who came on five bikes and in a stolen car, attacked Rohan Kumar, em- ployee of an ice cream compa- ny, around 11am. Kumar was driving to a bank in his Maruti Ritz to deposit the cash which was kept in a black bag on the passenger seat. Near the Rajouri Garden flyover, a stolen Chevrolet Beat overtook the Ritz and slammed into the driver’s side. As Kumar stopped, a man stepped out of the Beat and asked him to open the door. While Kumar hesitated, five bikes with two men on each surrounded his car. One of them shot twice at the Ritz’s windshield and smashed it. The robbers snatched the cash bag and fled on the bikes, leav- ing the Beat behind. Police rushed to the spot after passersby informed them about the crime. Crime and forensic teams picked up fingerprints and other evi- dence from the crime scene. A case of armed robbery with intention to cause death has been registered under Section 397 of IPC. Police said the Beat used in the crime was stolen from Ra- jouri Garden in 2012. The rob- bers seemed familiar with the area, and police say an insider may have tipped them off about the cash. Ten police teams are working on various leads. They expect to get more clues from a turban-clad man seen in CCTV footage. The robbery has raised questions on the law and order situation in the district and the police brass at the head- quarters has formed special teams to crack the case, which is likely to be transferred to the crime branch if there is no breakthrough within 24 hours, a senior officer said. Eleven rob `40 lakh from car, fire at and hurt driver LEFT BEHIND: The car in which the robbers arrived TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi: After lost report and traffic complaint apps, Delhi Po- lice will now launch one for re- porting vehicle thefts and getting an FIR registered. Though it’s early days and police are looking for a software developer, there is a lot of enthusiasm surrounding this app as, given that the capital sees about 50 transport thefts dai- ly, a lot of people will surely be benefited by it. If the vehicles are traced, the owner will be contacted immedi- ately. FIR would be instantly reg- istered electronically at a special- ly designated nodal police station created for this purpose at the crime branch. The bilingual app will work on Android, iOS and Windows 8 platforms on both computers and smartphones. The application will have var- ious fields such as complainant’s name, parent’s name, police dis- and FIR registered, a case file will be instantly generated on the server and a copy of the FIR sent to the victim in PDF format. The FIR will then be automat- ically sent to the area PCR and ar- ea SHO apart from all SHOs of Delhi and district superintend- ents in India. The details of the stolen vehicle would be uploaded on ZIPNET, sent to the State Transport Authority and State and National Crime Record Bu- reau electronically. The app will be user-friendly as error messages would clearly explain to a user the nature of the problem and indicate what ac- tion needs to be taken. The mo- bile application must be compati- ble with all screen sizes including small, medium, large and extra large. The earlier apps have been a huge hit. Till now, 1,91,150 lost reports have been registered on- line—1,80,904 through website and 10,246 through mobile app. contact information and a digi- tally signed FIR will be regis- tered. This will not only save time but also help people in getting their insurance claims disbursed on time,” said a source. The app will use the one-time password system for verification of mobile number and email ID through SMS. Once data is fed in trict and police station from the area of which the vehicle has been stolen. It will be integrated with Know Your Police Station widget of Delhi Police. “The user will then enter the make, type, model, registration number, engine number, chassis number and colour of their vehi- cle. It will ask the user to fill in his App in works to lodge vehicle theft FIRs ➤ Identity, mobile number and email ID to be verified through a one-time password ➤ Crime branch to have a designated nodal police station ➤ Details uploaded on ZIPNET to be sent to the transport authority and state and national crime records bureau ➤ Server to generate a case file immediately ➤ Complainant to get FIR copy in PDF format POLICE SHOW APPTITUDE A bilingual mobile app compatible with Android, iOS & Windows 8 will generate digitally signed FIRs Automatic prompt in case of recovery. Otherwise, a police report to help claim insurance Raj.Shekhar@timesgroup.com New Delhi: Delhi Police have nabbed a person for sending lewd messages to a woman member of parlia- ment from Rajasthan who had complained that she had been receiving threatening and obscene texts on her mo- bile phone. She said she had received five such messages in the last week of June and had registered a complaint on Thursday. The number was traced to Alwar in Rajasthan and a team was sent to nab the cul- prit on Thursday evening. He was apprehended and in- terrogated. He disclosed his wife had gone missing and one of his friends had given him the number of the MP saying, if he threatened this person, his wife would be re- turned to him. Police have booked him under Section 66A of Information Technol- ogy Act. A case has been reg- istered at Tughlaq Road PS. Man held for sending MP lewd texts TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi: A 10-year-old boy died after being electrocuted by a high tension line on Sat- urday morning, police said. The boy was playing on his terrace when he accidentally touched the cable passing be- side his house in northwest Delhi's Swaroop Nagar. Nitish Kumar, a student of Class VI at a local government school, had gone up to the ter- race to play with his friends on Saturday morning. His friends said that he had tried to catch a ball far from the par- apet when his hand touched the wire. His family said he was stuck to the cable for a few minutes. They rushed him to a local hospital where the doc- tors declared him dead. The power supply compa- ny sent a team to find out whether the house had en- croached into the safety zone. 10-yr-old electrocuted TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi: The heat is on. Ahead of the early morning World Cup soccer final on Monday, there is breathless excitement in the city. Some schools have postponed their unit test for children usually held on Mondays. For their moms and dads, the German and Argentinean embassies will put up big screens and serve food and drinks. How- ever, the pubs, clubs and bars have nothing on offer be- cause of the late timings of the match and deadline to shut by 1am. The unit test in schools like DPS RK Puram and San- skriti School, Gurgaon, have been postponed after chil- dren made requests to their teachers. “People follow foot- ball, especially the World Cup. Since the students will be watching the match and the match timing is so late, it was decided to reschedule the unit test. The students had asked for a holiday but that was declined,” said Poo- nam of Delhi Public School, RK Puram. Even Sanskriti School has issued a notice on its web- site stating that the unit test will now be held on Tuesday. Students, too, confirmed that, due to the World Cup fi- nal match, the test has been rescheduled. However, the law to shut down restaurants by 1am has led to losses for the pub own- ers. “During such big world events, people in Delhi can’t go out. Not only do we miss out on business but people are also forced to stay at home,” Dheeraj Arora, own- er of Shalom, said. In some pubs earlier, there were special menus and offers for the World Cup. At Soy, a fancy sports bar cum lounge in Khan Market, the customers were given vodka and whiskey shots for every goal scored in the match. But this time, most of them aren’t doing anything special. A big event at German embassy and Max Mueller Bhavan has been organized. “There will be snacks and drinks served all night along. Face-paint- ing is on offer. Anyone can walk in and watch the game,” said a Max Mueller Bhavan official. Even the German Embassy has sent out invites and people can enjoy the game. Many people have made plans to watch the big game at their friends’ place. Pra- veen Ganguly, a lawyer, has specially stocked booze at his place in advance as the sales of liquor has gone up. “Beer sales are very high during World Cup and on Sunday it will not be available. Since we can’t go out as restaurants and pubs are closed, people will have to watch it at home with friends and family,” Ganguly said. Football lovers get set to witness final showdown CLASH OF THE TITANS: Fans hope to watch an epic contest between Thomas Muller’s Germany and Lionel Messi’s Argentina TIMES NEWS NETWORK In Loving Memory of SHRI SWADESH KUMAR PAUL 22.06.1930 to 13.07.2006 Some times, the good deeds of our departed dear ones, shine in our lives and make us feel their presence. Your values and ideals still inspire us. Sadly missed and loved by: Sanjay, Sonia, Aamir, Saisha and Friends. Remembrance Anil Kumar Vadehra 26.11.1943 - 13.07.2013 Each day we miss your care, affection and guid- ance. You will always be there in our hearts. With fond memories and promises to keep your dreams alive. Anand Vadehra (Wife), Aruna Vadehra (Sister), Amit-Manisha, Ashish-Shruti, your loving grandchildren, family members & friends. UTHALA OBITUARY
