Nepal’s acid attack survivors find a saviour

For those who are convinced that Nepal is a hopeless cause, and nothing can be achieved, Ujjwal Bikram Thapa is a shining example of activism with impact.

The day 28 September will forever be etched in this activist’s memory. After years of lobbying to stop acid attacks that continue to disfigure mostly young women, Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari finally signed into law two ordinances regulating acid sales and criminalising perpetrators of acid attacks. 

“It was a victory for all the survivors of acid attacks, a recognition of their suffering and sacrifice,” says Thapa, who has been working relentlessly for the last six years helping many of them with medical treatment and rehabilitation. “They are the heroes. I am simply a medium for change.”  

Ujjwal Bikram Thapa, 52, says his main inspiration for social service is his father Mohan Bikram, Nepal’s first forest conservation officer. After the 2015 earthquake, he helped construct 1,000 shelters for families, and has also helped 400 victims of burn related violence, many of them young women punished by in-laws for inadequate dowry.

Thapa has devoted his life to social service, and started out helping his father to take care of patients from the family’s ancestral district of Sindhuli to get medical treatment in Kathmandu. After his father died nine years ago, Thapa carried on the work, financing it with earnings from his wife and other investments.

Thapa has been encouraged by another famous alumni of Sherwood College in Nainital, Amitabh Bachchan, who has helped publicise his work with acid victims in Nepal and India. 

Indian acid attack activist Laxmi Agrawal also called Thapa last month to appreciate his work to have acid attacks criminalised by law in Nepal – a legislation that has been stuck in India itself. Agrawal’s ordeal became the theme of the Bollywood film Chappak, with Deepika Padukone playing her part.

Thapa’s work has not just been to offer immediate assistance for emergency treatment of acid attack victims and to give them a new lease of life, but also to work as a one-man pressure group to bring the new ordinance in force.

Among those who have benefited from his assistance are acid attack survivors Sangita Magar, Jenny Khadka, Bindabasini Kansakar and many others, whom he has arranged jobs at Kumari Bank. Another victim, Ramraja Thapa, recently found work in the Attorney General’s office.

Thapa’s counselling and comfort emboldens victims to move on from their experiences.  He says: “I would rather let them cry for three hours than give them false hope and pretences. Often, I would be the only person telling them that they will probably never look the same.” 

Instead of pitying survivors, Thapa’s approach has been to restore their confidence and self-esteem. He encouraged 14-year-old Muskan Khatun to write to Prime Minister KP Oli, facilitating the high-profile parliamentary hearing, and a meeting last month at Baluwatar between Oli and acid attack survivors that led to the Cabinet decision on the ordinance.

Thapa has also built a solidarity group of acid attack survivors who help each other, visiting the latest victim in hospital to provide moral and material support. Many call Thapa “father”, “uncle” or sometimes even “grandfather”, and speak of him with great fondness. 

The first person at Rajaram Thapa’s side at Teaching Hospital recently, for instance, was 16-year-old Muskan Khatun, who herself was splashed with acid last year in Birganj by a rejected suitor.

“Ties of acid run thicker than blood,” explains Thapa, who traces the beginning of his work with acid attack victims to an incident at Bir Hospital in 2015. He was attending to an ailing relative, when there was a loud commotion at the emergency.

Sangita Magar had just been brought in, her head disfigured and crying in pain. She was 16 when a young man threw acid at her during an SLC tuition class in Kathmandu. 

Thapa’s world shook as he pictured his three daughters in Sangita’s place. “I could not bear looking at her. I could only see my daughters in her place,” he recalls. “This was the first time in my life I felt so helpless.” 

Thapa decided to turn his outrage into action, and his appeals to then Prime Minister Lokendra Chand and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam secured free treatment for Sangita, who went on to finish her SLC exam and get free college education at Nobel Academy. 

The new legislation will now allow survivors like Sangita to have the government cover lifetime treatment costs, and her nasal reconstruction surgery that will cost Rs1.8 million will also be possible. Her nose was so badly burnt by the acid that surgeons grafted tissue from her thigh to allow her to breathe through her left ear.

“After seven years, Sangita will not have to breathe through her ear again, she can breathe through her nose,” Thapa says.

Bindabasini Kansakar had Rs70 worth of acid thrown at her, but her medical treatment so far has cost Rs20 million. Says Thapa: “The shopkeeper who sold the acid must have made just Rs20 profit on that bottle. With the new law, he will not be able to sell acid so easily.”

In September 2018, Samjhana and Sushmita Das had acid splashed on them by a neighbour in Rautahat district. Samjhana had nearly 50% burns and her skin had melted away. Sushmita’s injuries were less serious.

Samjhana fought for life, but died 12 days later, the hospital would not let her family take her body until they paid the bills. "I made a promise to Samjhana’s soul that day I would not rest until these crimes are stopped,” Thapa says. 

Jenny Khadka was attacked with acid by husband Bishnu Bhujel in May 2019 after a quarrel. She was taken to the burns hospital in Kirtipur. The crime on Khadka had been in the media headlines, and Thapa remembers a 12-year-old girl greeting him at the hospital entrance giving him an envelope and saying: “Ujjwal Sir, this is for Jenny’s treatment.”

Before he could ask her anything more, she disappeared. He opened the envelope to find Rs21. Thapa is emotional relating this incident. 

Thapa was awarded Nepal’s Social Service Medal on Constitution Day last month, but he says the real prize will be won by Nepalis the day the legislation comes into full effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NAkdUC4j7o&feature=emb_logo

While coverage of acid attacks are mostly sensational stories of rejected proposals and revenge on women, there is a broader criminal intent. Four male victims of such attacks have been reported, not one of whom has received any state assistance. With new legislation in place, they are hopeful to also be recognised.

“Gender will no more be an issue in the delivery of justice,” says Rajaram Thapa, whose wife threw acid on him.  

The new laws introduce tougher punishment for perpetrators. Murder by acid attack carries a life sentence, while damage to vital organs such as eyes, ears, mouth and chest now carries a 20-year prison term. Damage to limbs and peripheral organs carries a 15-year term, while even the intent to attack carries at least a 10-year sentence. 

The government has also waived treatment costs for victims, taking responsibility for their preliminary and long-term treatment. 

The new laws are expected to reduce acid attacks by tightening acid sales and reducing access to them.