A 28-year-old Dalit woman who was subjected to acid attack by four men in the remote Mogallur village in Prakasam district four years ago is still knocking on the doors of courts at different levels including the Supreme Court. After surviving the ordeal, she was given a permanent job as Junior Assistant in the Revenue Department, thanks to the intervention of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu after the AP Dalit Mahasabha Chirala unit general secretary N. Babu Rao took up her cause. But she wants more than a job.
“I want justice,” said P. Asha Jyothi after she received her appointment order from Prakasam District Collector Sujatha Sharma.
Daughter of a postman, Asha Jyothi was a contract physical education teacher in the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya at Veligandla. After her father passed away, her mother Vijayamma was given the job of a postwoman. The mother and daughter were hoping to lead a quiet life when fate intervened cruelly.
On her daily journey to her college and back, four men had taken to sexually harassing her. She put up with it. Then her marriage was fixed, and her piqued tormentors decided to go a step ahead. On September 6, 2011, they threw acid on her.
Badly burnt, she was referred to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital in Chennai, where doctors took it as a medical challenge to save her.
“I returned from the jaws of death after battling for life for several months,” says Asha Jyothi.
In the years since her ordeal, the woman experienced severe bouts of depression and needed treatment by a psychotherapist. The scars remain, however.
She has been pursuing justice for 45 months. Dissatisfied with the probe conducted by the local police, she moved first the Andhra Pradesh High Court and then the Supreme Court. She wants a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The courts, however, turned down her plea on grounds that it was the State Government which should recommend a CBI probe to the Centre and asked her to approach the district-level court dealing with SC/ST atrocities cases.
Vexed with frequent adjournments at the instance of the defence counsel, the woman wants the State government to ensure justice for her.
Even the job came to her after a lot of trouble. Asha Jyothi was forced to run from pillar to post before getting a permanent government job as rules relating to acid attack cases made it difficult.
AP Dalit Mahasabha leader Babu Rao says that government compensation rules define acid atrocities in such a manner as to make it difficult for victims to get the benefits if the percentage of burns is not high. But they do take note of the fact that unlike burn victims, acid attack victims can die even if the burns are 35 per cent.
It was because of then chief secretary Minnie Mathew, who took a liberal view, that Asha Jyothi got the government job at last.
Mr. Babu Rao says the government should constitute an expert committee to evolve guidelines on providing compensation to acid attack victims. The government should also regulate the sale of acid, which is easily available in every street corner now as toilet cleaner, says Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhudaya Samiti State president T. Aruna.
