Darya Yurieva moved last week from the front pages of our newspapers to a hospital room in Moscow, the beginning of what will be a long, tortuous recovery from the 45 percent chemical burns she received when a spurned suitor hurled acid on her — her story fitting into a terrifyingly familiar template of a bruised ego seeking vengeance in the most hurtful, permanent way known to him.

The young Russian tourist, who was flown out of Delhi’s Safdarjung’s Hospital last Monday, is already in danger of being dismissed as another statistic, the latest in the long list of acid attack survivors, an overwhelming majority of them women, many of whom had dared to say no. The rejection was unacceptable and the men who attacked them — stalkers, rejected lovers, angry husbands denied a son — did so with the intention of not killing but literally defacing the persona that had attracted; the acid flung with abandon but bought, hideously easily and cheap from perhaps a neighbourhood store, with the cold, deliberate knowledge that it would obliterate her face, leave her scarred forever.

Yurieva’s story has been no different.

She had been staying, according to reports, in a paying guest accommodation belonging to Siddharth Srivastava’s family in Varanasi. The two reportedly travelled together to various places, including Assam and Sikkim. The second time, however, she went to Sikkim alone and insisted on going back to Moscow once she returned to Varanasi. Srivastava, whose proposal she had rejected, was said to be furious. And in the early hours of Friday the 13th, three days before she was due to fly back, he poured sulphuric acid on her while she was sleeping.

The acid worked instantly, melting her skin tissue and leaving her with burns that affected her eyes, face, neck, chest, abdomen, right arm, complete left leg and right thigh, said doctors at Safdarjung, where she was taken the following day, unsure of whether she would recover her eyesight.

A humble boy?

Srivastava was arrested and his grandfather told police that the music student from Banaras Hindu University was a “humble boy” who had lost interest in studies. Tellingly, Srivastava, according to one report, had bought the acid from a local store a week earlier. His ‘confession’ was equally telling. “I threw acid on her in a fit of rage as she was not willing to talk to me,” he said at a press conference. Chilling words that reflect the absolute presumption that this to him was a relationship where a ‘no’ was not to be countenanced, where the ‘fit of rage’ had hardened into calibrated, thought-out revenge planned days ahead. And what better way to hit back than this, wounding at one throw not just her physical self but also leaving her emotionally scarred for life.

AT A GLANCE Despite the severity of the crime and the large number of cases, acid attacks began to be categorised separately only in 2013, when 116 cases were recorded. This went up dramatically in 2014 with 349 cases, according to the Acid Survivors Foundation India. That’s almost one case a day. Given the reality that is India, where most such cases are hidden behind the veil of societal shame, this is probably the proverbial tip of a very large iceberg. Police figures reveal that Delhi alone has registered 25 cases of acid attacks from January to October this year.

Acid attacks, along with cases of aggravated sexual assault, including rape, are at the extreme end of the spectrum of crimes against women.

Ease of access

The Supreme Court has ordered that the sale of acid be strictly regulated. But the ease with which acid can be bought for just a few rupees anywhere and everywhere exposes the yawning chasm between intention and implementation. All you need to do to get a bottle of aid is walk into the nearest shop and ask for a toilet cleaner. “Acid is still very, very easily available and a litre of acid can be purchased for as little as 50 pence — and can be bought in most towns and villages in India,” Acid Survivors Trust International Executive Director Jaf Shah was quoted as telling Thomson Reuters Foundation.This ease has meant that acid attack stories continue to play out with the same refrain — a lifetime of trauma, prohibitive and painful reconstructive surgeries that many survivors simply cannot afford and once pretty women forced to live with pitying stares and even revulsion. Sometimes, their spunk penetrates through the fog of societal indifference. Like Laxmi, who had a bottle of acid thrown at her for refusing a proposal 10 years ago and has made it her mission to campaign for the rights of acid survivors. She is now a mother and is attempting to move on. But the shadows of the harrowing past linger. “I feared the sight of me would scare her… All she did was snuggle up and go to sleep,” she says of her toddler daughter in a recent report. Or Reshma Bano Qureshi, her eyelid fused into her face after her brother-in-law attacked her, who can be seen giving tips on “how to get perfect red lips” in a YouTube campaign video right before she states simply that it is easy to acquire a red lipstick — just as it is to get acid.

The stories are so many, differing in just the details. It is to be hoped that Yurieva — the savage irony of her being 23 just like the December 16 intern is inescapable — is not forgotten. The fact that she was a foreigner put her in the national spotlight, unlike many others who barely merit a passing mention, with New Delhi promising to cover the cost of her treatment.

Her story should not be one of out of sight, out of mind. Had she been in Safdarjung, the odd report of her recovery would have kept the issue alive. Our thoughts must be with her as she wages her lonely battle to recovery. Till we don’t change the framework of a patriarchal society, till we don’t teach our sons the fundamentals of gender equality, that a ‘yes’ is not a matter of entitlement, men like Siddharth Srivastava will vent just this way.

The author is consulting editor, dna