SC framed guidelines for all victims irrespective of gender.It is the govt authorities who made rules gender discriminatory, says Chandrahass Mishra, acid attack survivor.

Young female lawyer Anuja Kapur hugged an emotional 35-year-old Chandrahass Mishra, an acid attack survivor, soon after Chief Justice Dipak Misra uttered: "We are issuing notice on your public interest litigation."

For Kapur and her client Mishra, it was a moment of glory as India's highest court not only agreed to probe into continuing acid attacks in the country despite the stern orders in 2013 aimed at curbing it, but would also look into the discrimination against male victims in a society which believes that only women can fall prey to it.

According to National Crime Record Bureau, more than 30-40 per cent of acid attack victims are men.

On September 8, 2011, Mishra, a Meerut resident, was attacked with a bucket full of acid by his landlord's son, whom he allegedly prevented from molesting a woman a day before.

After the skirmish, the accused had threatened Mishra: "Muh dikhane layak nahi rahoge" (You won't even be fit to show your face in public). He suffered nearly 40 per cent burns with his head, face and hands worst affected. Mishra, a small-time businessman, underwent several surgeries and also treatment for reconstructing his face through plastic surgery.

He ended up spending Rs 30 lakh, forced to borrow money and take loans. The worst was yet to come. He had to run from pillar to post for nearly 10 months both for getting a medical board set up for calculating the compensation based on the burns suffered and for disability benefits.

"Though Supreme Court had ordered a compensation of Rs 3 lakh for all victims, the reading of the state government authorities was that only woman victims are entitled to it. In the end, after five years, in 2016 I got a compensation of one lakh rupees. Again a gender discrimination," Mishra, now a coordinator with the NGO Acid Survivors and Women Welfare Foundation, told Mail Today.

The Rs 1 lakh compensation also came after he wrote letters to the district magistrate and met several bureaucrats. Though acid attacks are often seen as a crime against women and Justice Verma Commission and a report by the Law Commission noted that acid attacks are usually a form of gender-based violence, a significant and increasing number of victims are men.

"The societal presumption is that only women are the victims of acid attack. But the landmark Supreme Court guidelines of 2013, which prescribed compensation and rehabilitation, were meant for all victims. Gender discrimination was infused in the rules by state governments", said his advocate Kapur who is also a criminal psychologist

"The discrimination is not just in matters of compensation and setting up of medical board, but also in trial courts which fast track acid attack cases against women while those against men move at a snail's pace," said Mishra.

"The number of men victims may be less but they are equally serious. They also suffer the same physical and mental pain. The cases of men are never highlighted by NGOs too. So they do not receive the same support and cooperation from others, as women," says Mishra.

India Today Conclave East 2017: Young entrepreneur, acid attack survivor tell their tale