It makes us wonder why in India it takes repeated prompting from the Supreme Court to make the executive move on issues that matter to society. Take, for instance, the sale of acid. The apex court had been nudging the Central bureaucracy for years to get moving towards curbing the sale of such acid as lends itself easily to the despicable act of using it on fellow human beings.
Throwing acid on women has become a virtual pastime for jilted lovers in obvious cases of unrequited love, or in extreme examples of zealotry, as in Kashmir where extremist outfits have been known to use the substance as a weapon against girls going to school to study in defiance of their diktat. It is a sad commentary on society that on an average about 1,000 acid attacks take place annually.
The problem of executing the proposed solution is not to be scoffed at in a country that has little respect for regulations and laws sit on the statute books. Any banned or restricted merchandise can also immediately move to the grey market where the only motive is profit. The government’s resolve to allow sale of common acids to the public only in a diluted form that would not have too much of a deleterious effect on people is a welcome initiative.
Until we wake up as a society and learn to treat women as equals we must hope the states will awake to the menace now and ensure the sale of powerful acid is truly reined in.