She is nine years old. Hasn't had her fill of hopscotch or kit-kit or whatever it is that girls her age play, but for every day for two years now she has understood little by little that she must not aspire to such normalcy. Her scarred face repulses children and adults alike. Forget play, today nobody wants to look at the girl who had been fondly named at birth Ruptaj Yasmin.

One night, two years ago, a shadowy figure sneaked into the bedroom of the Yasmin sisters' Murshidabad home. It was the jilted lover of one of the older sisters. He took a flask of acid and emptied it over the mosquito net. The acid got the youngest sister.

Ankita Sarkar is 10 years older to Ruptaj. This young woman from Alipurduar stopped going to college after she suffered acid burns on the left side of her face. She stays locked in her room, lives vicariously through Facebook, if you can call that living.

Deepabali Rajak of north Malda had wanted a job as a police constable. She applied in 2014, but was rejected for being overweight. Two years and an acid attack later, Deepabali is half her original 68 kilos. She can barely eat.

"The acid destroyed my oesophagus, corroded the food pipe. It also damaged my right ear and throat. For months my tongue hung out and the gums were damaged. I couldn't talk, eat or drink," says Deepabali whose attacker was a scorned suitor. "There was a constant burning sensation that lasted months," she adds, her voice quivering with a range of emotions - irony, rage, pain, frustration, helplessness.

Deepabali, Ankita, Ruptaj... The list of Bengal's acid attack victims is interminable, but only a fraction is actually reported - 10 last year, 10 the year before and nine the year before that. On paper, everything seems fine. There is a regulation in place for the sale of acid. Punishment can extend to a lifer. Treatment of victims is to be borne by the state. The reality, however, is different. The victims are almost always female. The perpetrators, a species unto themselves, twisted with hate and vengeance. The law, just not stringent enough.

Anti-socials circumvent the law. In most cases, acid is procured from goldsmiths or gold factories, says Bikramjit Sen of NGO Acid Survivor's Foundation of India (ASFI).

Police nab the criminals, but are not very careful while framing charges. "Usually Sections 326A and B of the Indian Penal Code are slapped. These are non-bailable but cases are so flimsily built that within 15 to 20 days of jail custody attackers get bail," says lawyer Sayanti Sengupta of ASFI.

Monica Mondal of Nungi in Budge Budge was attacked in March last year. Her attacker, a neighbour, poured acid down her back. Monica can't sit for even half an hour at a stretch now. The muscles around her spine have melted. But her violator was granted bail because the case diary said no vulnerable body part had been attacked. "Who decides which part of the body is vulnerable?" asks Sengupta.

Often, bail is also granted on grounds that the accused is from the same locality as the victim and cannot run away easily. "This makes the victim even more vulnerable. The accused can also tamper with evidence. In reality, the accused roams free and the victim is under house arrest," says Sengupta.

Moyna Pramanik of Murshidabad was burnt neck down for giving birth to a girl child in 2001. No case was registered against her attackers by police. But the unkindest cut of all was yet to come. Last year, her teenaged daughter hung herself. "She couldn't take it anymore. Neighbours and acquaintances kept blaming her for my fate," says Moyna, tears streaming down her burnt cheeks.

Acid attack victims are so disfigured, so transmogrified, it is often sheer reflex to look away. Fifteen years down the line, Moyna is still waiting for her promised Rs 3 lakh compensation. Setbacks notwithstanding, she must live. She earns a living as a cook at a local school.

Unlike Moyna, Deepabali got her Rs 3 lakhs. But to date she has spent five times the amount on her treatment. Though the perpetrator is behind bars, he keeps calling her and her family from jail and threatens them.

Still looking away, are we?