Meet Delhi's brave male acid attack survivors

Acid attacks are most often seen as a crime against women. The majority of victims are young women who face the ire of jilted lovers and even law commissions have reported that it is a gender-based violence. But increasingly, a significant share of acid attack victims are men.

Their cases generally go unreported, simply because most of the victims are women and there is a gross underestimation of the numbers.

But there are many like Aditya, a toddler who was left to die on roadside after his mother's jilted lover poured acid on his face and body or Firoz (42), who was watching TV casually when an altercation between his brother and neighbour turned ugly.

Meet the men acid attack survivors of Delhi.

NEIGHBOURHOOD SCUFFLE SCARRED FIROZ KHAN FOR LIFE

Firoz Khan, now 42, was 27-year-old when a neighbourhood scuffle scarred him for life. While the physical pain continues to hurt, the mental agony is perhaps even worse as he makes rounds of the court to prove that he was in fact the victim and not the attacker. Khan, speaking to Mail Today, said that he was watching TV inside his house on a cold January winter evening in 2002 when an altercation intensified between neighbours and his younger brother.

"I ran outside as it did not sound like just another neighbourhood scuffle. I saw my brother arguing with our neighbour and naturally came to his rescue. I asked him to go inside and within a second, the neighbour fetched a bucket full of acid and with a mug, started to throw it on us."

Firoz saved himself from grave injuries by rushing towards a community hand pump. But the damage was already done. "I sat under running water but it did not stop the fumes rising from my body. My skin melted and started peeling off within seconds," Firoz said.

15 years later, despite being the victim, he is being made to go to for hearings at the Tis Hazari court every month as the accused, one Kaushal Kishor, filed a complaint against him."I have spent money for fifteen years now on my medication. I could not lie down for a year on my back infected with pus. Now I have to to prove my innocence." "We have decided to move to High Court now but it will easily take five to six years for the verdict," said Manoj Bhandari, Firoz's lawyer.

DELHI'S YOUNGEST ACID ATTACK SURVIVOR- ADITYA RAJ

Two and a half-year-old Aditya Raj is Delhi's youngest acid-attack survivor. The toddler was kidnapped by his mother's jilted lover on December 13, when he was playing right outside his house.

"I went inside to get money to buy him corn but when I came back, Aditya was missing. I ran to check with every neighbour but we could not spot him until the next morning." Aditya was found by police next morning with burnt skin, which had almost turned black. But he was in a conscious when cops spotted him near a drain. From that day till now, we have visited four hospitals for his treatment and we don't know how many more visits are in store for us, said Jamuna Prasad, Aditya's father. "He will undergo another surgery next month which will rectify his air passage from the left nostril," the father said.

Soni, Aditya's mother, rued how the incident changed this toddler, who does not come near his mother anymore. "If he sees a stranger now, his first instinct is to run inside the house or simply break down. He grows inconsolable," said Soni. As parents, the couple has given up their hopes to let him go outside the house, let alone send him to school. "His left eye doesn't shut anymore. He sleeps with his left eye open," Soni told Mail Today.

UPENDRA KUMAR FELL PREY TO NEIGHBOURHOOD RIVALRY

Upendra Kumar, who is just 14 years old, fell prey to a neighbourhood rivalry born out of a petty fight where a family opposed their kids friendship with him.

One day, when he was coming home after playing with them, two unidentified men poured acid in Upendra's eyes, leaving him blinded and both corneas damaged.

"My son's education has come to a halt for two years now. I am struggling everyday after work to teach him braille so that he can pick up studies but there is no help extended from the government so far for his education," said Upendra's father Rajveer Singh.

ALSO READ | Bengaluru: Jilted lover throws acid at boyfriend for refusing to marry her, slashes face with surgical knife

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