New Delhi, 7 November 2020: Anupama was hardly 13 when she faced the worst of human brutality. A stalker 12 years Anupama’s senior, would follow Anupama and her sister around, often throwing things at them to catch their attention. An innocent Anupama complained to her family. Her brother went over to the man’s house to insist that he stop chasing his sisters. It made the stalker so angry that he snuck into the sisters’ bedroom one evening and threw acid at the two of them. Anupama bore the brunt of the attack, while her sister escaped with burns to her stomach. Sadly, Anupama’s face, chest, and arms were disfigured beyond recognition.
Anupama is not the only unfortunate woman in a male-dominated country like India. Every year hundreds of women are facing such brutality just because they don’t want to be harassed. Between 2014 and 2018, there were 1,483 victims of acid attacks in the country, according to the NCRB data.
To give healing touch to such victims, Shahrukh Khan incorporated Meer Foundation in 2013 and is aiming to not only heighten the awareness around the subject but also collaborating with several organisations for bigger cause.
The website of the Meer Foundation gives several information. To help victims with all legal formalities, the website of Meer Foundation navigates it step-by-step. There are links that give step-by-step instructions to help one as a survivor obtain these essential provisions. They include information on government forms to fill, laws, and contact information for lawyers and hospitals. As a backup, the website also hosts office numbers of local representatives for every district in India should you feel the need to reach out to them.
Not only this, the foundation has partnered with several organisations engaged in many activities from legal to providing treatments. Like, it has partnered with Human Right Law Network (HRLN) and had formulated a training programme to educate the community on the legal rights of acid attack survivors. Participants included survivors, lawyers, members of the Delhi Police’s All-Women Patrolling Cell, and senior plastic surgeons, who came together to address grievances and offer support to survivors. At the end of the programme, they created an action plan that is to be implemented over the course of the year, says the foundation.
Similarly, it has joined hands with Masina Hospital for skin bank. It says, "We joined hands with the hospital in a year-long engagement to support their skin bank, Kharas Memorial Centre. With this endeavour, Masina Hospital helps develop new methods of skin harvesting and burns treatment at an affordable cost, and we provide assistance by raising awareness about skin donation."
It has partnered with several other organistions as well. It includes It Has Make Love Not Scars, New Delhi, Acid Survivors Foundation India, Kolkata, Acid Survivors Saahas Foundation, Mumbai, National Burns Centre, Mumbai, Atijeevan Foundation, Bangalore, SEWA, Gujarat and many others.
