Reasons/Causes Of Acid Attacks

There are many reasons for acid attacks. The most common and obvious reason is “love rejection”, in which the proposer of marriage, love or sex is rejected by the victim. Families of young women are very concerned with the preservation of their daughters‟ marriageability. In addition to her physical appearance, a woman’s virginity is another resource in the marriage market, and therefore, women’s involvement in romantic relationships before marriage is taboo. Vindictive lovers, on being turned down for marriage by women or their families, resort to acid attacks to destroy the woman’s appearance and relegate her to a fate worse than death. Study of Indian News Reports, from January 2002 to October 2012 uncovered that victim’s rejection for love and marriage proposals motivated attacks in 35% of the 110 new stories, providing a motive for the attack. 

Additionally, another report was published by a leading organization working for acid attack victims, The Campaign and Struggle against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW) found that sexual harassment or assault in response to a woman or girl refusing such advances or demanding that the violence stop often precede such attacks. This shows the society’s outlook on women. Women still cannot fight for their rights which are the basic human right of every individual. Women are still regarded as “possession”, and a man is supposed to take up all the decisions in the family. And when a woman refuses a man, it is seen as destroying his reputation, prestige and honour, and he restores it by burning her face with acids. Men throw acid on women as a mark of their masculinity and superiority. By deforming her face, man derives a sadistic pleasure and his male ego gets satisfied. Another prominent reason may be dowry problems or other marital problems. Though taking of dowry is a punishable offence,  still it is largely prevalent in many areas. It is considered as the duty of the bride’s family and has to suffer a huge social stigma if not complied with. In India, many women claim that they are attacked with acid due to the failure to meet with the monetary expectations of their in-laws. In addition to this, land and property disputes may also be said to be the key reasons for the commission of this barbaric offence. 

The study of newspaper reports in India, exhibits that nearly 20% of the attacks occurred between unrelated people, due to business rivalry, sales disputes, land disputes or revenge between families. Thus, from the above discussion one can reach at the conclusion that men resort to acid attacks as a means to intimidate women and to impose their authority on her. Such kind of barbaric attacks nurtures his male ego and makes him feel that he is the proud creator of God and has created the patriarchal society. Females between 11 and 30 years are the most vulnerable to such attacks, in 36% of the incidents, the victims are targeted for rejection of marriage proposals. Therefore, the main cause that is seen to be behind the acid attack is the rejection of sexual advances.

Unlike other weapons such as guns, knives and grenades that are illegal, hard to find, or too much expressive, acid is easy to acquire. There are main four reasons behind attacks:

1.      CULTURAL- Cultural attacks stem from gender, economic, or class inequalities, the culture of revenge, to calm misogyny.

2.      SOCIETAL – It stem from impunity toward perpetrators, social permissiveness, history of punishment towards women, male-dominated resources.

3.      SITUATIONAL - Situational attacks are seen with family conflicts, low family education, geographic situation, the emotional state of individuals, peer association, cost of acid.

4.      PERSONAL – It starts from interpersonal feelings like male shame, powerlessness, the age of the perpetrator or victim, poor anger management skills, childhood neglect, antisocial behaviour etc.