KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 11

Acid attack victims today met CPN- UML Chair KP Sharma Oli and urged him to play a role to address the problems they face at hospitals and in their daily life. Acid attack victims met Oli as he was the first to bring out the anti-acid attack ordinance three years ago when he was prime minister. Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Bindbasini Kansakar, who is also an acid attack victim, met Oli.

Acid attack victim Muskan Khatun said they told Oli that while the anti-acid law enabled them to get free medical treatment, they still face many procedural barriers while seeking medicines that they need to use everyday. 'We have to fill up multiple forms and submit multiple types of documents to hospital staff to get creams that we must apply multiple times everyday. Sometimes we spend two hours filling up the forms. I think the only thing government staff should require from us is identity card,' Khatun said.

The process of getting free medicines is so cumbersome that I avoided going to government staff for three years to get gel and creams. My father paid for those medicines, she said and added that there were occasions when government staff said that the cream that she used was also like a cosmetic product and it should not be used as a cosmetic product.

Acid victims need to use creams multiple times everyday in order to prevent infection and stop the wound from getting worse.

She said although the anti-acid attack law addressed acid problems, it did not deal with the burn victims the same way. 'If a perpetrator uses petrol or kerosene to burn somebody, then the victim does not get free treatment,' she added. Khatun said that acid attack and burn victims face similar problems and difficulties.

Acid attack victims also told Oli that while the stringent anti-acid attack laws, reduced the number of acid attacks in the country, those laws were not enough to eradicate the threat of acid attack. 'We also need to educate the general public. People do not know about the dangers of acid. The government needs to use mass media and awareness campaign to educate the public about the harmful effects of acid, dangers of acid attack and legal punishment for acid attackers,' Muskan added.

Khatun said the government also needed to provide for the livelihood and education of acid victims.

Executive Director of Forum for Women, Law and Development Sabin Shrestha said that the current law failed to do justice to burn victims, particularly those victims that were attacked with other than acid, and acid- like substance such as petrol and kerosene. The government needs to provide free treatment to burn victims as well, when the victims are attacked with inflammatory objects or when the victim accidentally suffer burns, he added.

A version of this article appears in the print on September 12, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.