Aparna Haldar’s telephone rang one night. The call was from Utpal Haldar. Residents of Diamond Harbour near Calcutta, the two had been seeing each other. But their families did not approve of the affair. Aparna, an attractive 22-year-old, wanted to end the relationship and agree to a marriage arranged by her father. Utpal was, however, adamant. He dismissed her fervent pleas to be reconciled to the break up. But Aparna did not fathom the extent of his anger and depravity. And so, when he called her that fateful night, she agreed, albeit reluctantly, to meet him near her home. It turned out to be a rendezvous with death — a horribly painful one at that.

According to the police and court records, Utpal attacked Aparna as soon as she was within striking distance. He threw an acid-filled bulb on her face and while she screamed in pain, criminals hired by her spurned boyfriend pinned her to the ground. Utpal forced her mouth open and poured the corrosive chemical down her throat. Aparna was taken to the government-run Nil Ratan Sarkar Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta but she died within 24 hours.

That was in 2003. But acid attacks on women are still common in India. Earlier this month, a tailor in Calcutta’s Metiabruz area threw acid on two teenage sisters who are now undergoing treatment at a hospital. The tailor fancied the younger sister so much that he wanted to marry her immediately. But the girl’s mother told him that her elder daughter had to be married first. She also insisted on checking his background before agreeing to his proposal. Angered by the delay, the 20-year-old tailor threw acid on both the sisters — apparently to teach them and their mother a lesson.

But Utpal, the tailor and their ilk may soon have to think twice before committing such barbaric acts. Thanks to the efforts of the National Commission for Women (NCW), there may now be a specific law to deal with such cases. NCW has come up with a draft of the Prevention of Offences (by Acids) Act, 2008, which is being despatched to the Union ministry of women and child development for vetting. After its approval, the bill will be sent to the law ministry before it is tabled in Parliament to be passed as law.

At present India does not have a specific law to deal with acid attacks. But each year a number of women are killed, maimed, blinded or scarred for life for rejecting suitors, refusing to have sex, defying custom or as a result of family feuds or land disputes. Newspapers report the attacks but the Union government’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not even have figures for acid victims. There are no schemes for their medical treatment or rehabilitation.

In the absence of a specific law, acid attacks come under the purview of Section 326 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with voluntarily inflicting grievous physical injuries by weapons. But it’s a bailable section and the maximum prison term is seven years. Moreover, while the victim is often doomed for life, the perpetrator is granted bail and trials are delayed for decades.

Apart from seeking to bring in a new law, the NCW also wants amendments to Section 326 of the IPC, Section 114 of the Evidence Act and Section 357 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). This, it argues, would give legal teeth to the Prevention of Offences (by Acids) Act 2008 .

“In view of the crime’s cruelty, we are seeking the insertion of Sections 326A and B in the IPC. These sub-sections would make acid attack a cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable offence and the prison term will not be less than 10 years,” says Samarender Chatterjee, member secretary of NCW. “Moreover, the amendment of the Evidence Act and Section 357 of the CrPC will make the survivor’s statement good enough to sue the accused and make him cough up a compensation ranging between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh,” he adds.

Chatterjee estimates that at least 100 women are subjected to acid attacks in India every year. A Bangalore-based non governmental organisation, the Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW), has compiled a list of 65 cases in Karnataka alone between 1999 and 2008. “There are probably many more victims. We run into new survivors at every meeting we hold to raise awareness,” says CSAAAW’s Sanjana, who prefers to be addressed by her first name.

In a famous case, the CSAAAW helped Hasina Hussain get justice after her ex-boss Joseph Rodrigues poured 1.5 litres of sulphuric acid on her when she quit her job in his financially unstable firm in 1999. The acid melted her facial features, fused her shoulder and neck, burnt a hole in her head, merged her fingers and blinded her for life. In 2006 the Karnataka High Court sentenced Rodrigues to life imprisonment.

“An acid attack is a very gender-specific offence and the existing laws are no antidote to the crime,” says Sanjana. Adds advocate Aparna Bhatt, who is fighting the landmark case of Laxmi, who had acid thrown at her for turning down a marriage proposal in 2005, “What we have in our statute books is generic and inadequate. As the IPC does not specify acid attack as a special case, it gets registered as a routine case of causing grievous physical injury. This reduces the gravity of the offence.”

Chatterjee adds, “Since the victim of an acid attack is often left in no position to earn a living, the proposed law will make it compulsory for state governments to pay victims up to Rs 30 lakh for surgery and upkeep.”

Bangladesh already has a law to deal with acid attacks which, according to the Supreme Court, India should lake a leaf out of. Bangladesh’s Acid Control Act regulates the sale of acid and also the way it is produced, stored and transported. But in India anyone can buy a bottle of acid for as little as Rs 10. “We have recommended certain strategies to the government for regulating the import, production, transportation, storage and sale of acids. But controls are impractical as small-scale industries use acid and monitoring them is impossible,” says Chatterjee.

Activists have welcomed the proposed law to book acid-throwers. But they fear that the NCW’s good intentions will come to nought unless the government clamps down on the easy availability of acid across the country. They believe that as long as acid can be purchased over the counter from the neighbourhood grocer, maniacs will have the licence to scar a woman’s face forever, or, as in Aparna’s case, end her life.