ACID ATTACK VICTIM

Give me justice or let me die: Desperate plea of acid attack victim who was left blind and deaf by the three men who had 'sexually abused her'

BEFORE AND AFTER

                                                                                                 

·      Sonali Mukherjee's face was disfigured forever in 2003, when she was just 17 years old, by intruders who broke into her home in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

·      Her assailants, who had allegedly been sexually abusing her for years, poured the acid over her while she was sleeping.

·      Her treatment - 22 operations and several consultations - has already run into hundreds of thousands of rupees. 

·      Her family was forced to sell ancestral land, her mother's jewellery and is practically penniless. The operations have only helped give her disfigured face some shape. 

·      Her attackers included a 40-year-old married man, and an 18-year-old. The teenager was let off on account of being a juvenile, the other two were convicted for nine years, but appealed to a higher court and got out in just four

·     The 27-year-old is begging ministers to help her

'I need at least 15 lakhs to look even remotely human and have my eyesight restored,' she said. She described approaching the government as a last resort. 'I have knocked on all doors. I have met three chief ministers [Shibu Soren, Arjun Munda and Madhu Koda] and three MLAs. Let alone justice, I haven't received any monetary help from the state.'

THE HELPING HANDS

1)Her saviour may now have come in the form of plastic surgeon Anant Sinha,   however, who stepped forward to offer free medical treatment at his hospital for Miss   Mukherjee. 'I can understand the plight of the victim but she need not worry,' said Dr  Sinha. 'I will treat her free of cost at my hospital and if needed even give her a job at  my hospital for sustenance.'

2)How you can help:

Send your cheques to: Chandi Das MukherjeeAccount Number: 0612000103217964Punjab National Bank, New DelhiOr contact her brother at: 09437638600                   

'The law against acid attackers needs to be 

made tougher. Otherwise we will have many 

more Sonalis.'

JUNKO FURUTA

DAY 1: November 22, 1988: Kidnapped
Kept captive in house, and posed as one of boy’s girlfriend
Raped (over 400 times in total)
Forced to call her parents and tell them she had run away
Starved and malnutritioned
Fed cockroaches to eat and urine to drink
Forced to masturbate
Forced to strip in front of others
Burned with cigarette lighters
Foreign objects inserted into her vagina/anus

DAY 11: December 1, 1988: Severely beat up countless times
Face held against concrete ground and jumped on
Hands tied to ceiling and body used as a punching bag
Nose filled with so much blood that she can only breath through her mouth
Dumbbells dropped onto her stomach
Vomited when tried to drink water (her stomach couldn’t accept it)
Tried to escape and punished by cigarette burning on arms
Flammable liquid poured on her feet and legs, then lit on fire
Bottle inserted into her anus, causing injury

DAY 20: December10, 1989: Unable to walk properly due to severe leg burns
Beat with bamboo sticks
Fireworks inserted into anus and lit
Hands smashed by weights and fingernails cracked
Beaten with golf club
Cigarettes inserted into vagina
Beaten with iron rods repeatedly
Winter; forced outside to sleep in balcony
Skewers of grilled chicken inserted into her vagina and anus, causing bleeding

DAY 30: Hot wax dripped onto face
Eyelids burned by cigarette lighter
Stabbed with sewing needles in chest area
Left nipple cut and destroyed with pliers
Hot light bulb inserted into her vagina
Heavy bleeding from vagina due to scissors insertion
Unable to urinate properly
Injuries were so severe that it took over an hour for her to crawl downstairs and use the bathroom
Eardrums severely damaged
Extreme reduced brain size

DAY 40: Begged her torturers to “kill her and get it over with”
January 1, 1989: Junko greets the New Years Day alone
Body mutilated
Unable to move from the ground

DAY 44: January 4, 1989: The four boys beat her mutilated body with an iron barbell, using a loss at the game of Mah-jongg as a pretext. She is profusely bleeding from her mouth and nose. They put a candle’s flame to her face and eyes.
Then, lighter fluid was poured onto her legs, arms, face and stomach, and then lit on fire. This final torture lasted for a time of two hours.
Junko Furuta died later that day, in pain and alone. Nothing could compare 44 days of suffering she had to go through.
When her mother heard the news and details of what had happened to her daughter, she fainted. She had to undergo a psychiatric outpatient treatment . Imagine her endless pain.
Her killers are now free men. Justice was never served, not even after 20 years.
They deserve a punishment much greater than they had put upon Furuta, for putting an innocent girl through the most unbearable suffering.
This story from 1989 is true. Please spread her story around. Everyone should know about the existence of Junko Furuta’s unimaginable and incomprehensible suffering, and this is why this group has been made.
Invite your friends. Never let her story be forgotten. If this story changes the life of at least one person then it has been worth it.

Rest In Eternal Peace,
Junko Furuta
1989-Eternity

 "R.I.P JUNKO FURUTA"

IS IT A SIN TO BE A FARMER IN "MODERN INDIA"????????

India is an Agrarian country with around 60% of its people directly or indirectly depended upon Agriculture. 

BUT does the government really cares about Indian farmers?

Agriculture in India is often attributed as gambling with Monsoon because of its almost exclusive dependency on Monsoons. The failure of these monsoons leading to series of droughts, lack of better prices, exploitation by Middlemen have been leading to series of suicides committed by farmers across India. Farmers in India became the centre of considerable concern in the 1990s when a journalist brought in light the large number of suicides among them. Official reports initially denied the farmer suicides but as more and more information came to light the government began to accept that farmers in India were under considerable stress. 

 More than 17,500 farmers a year killed themselves between 2002 and 2006, according to experts who have analyzed government statistics.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stated that there were at least 16,196 farmers' suicides in India in 2008, bringing the total since 1997 to 199,132. According to another study by the Bureau, while the number of farm suicides increased since 2001, the number of farmers has fallen, as thousands abandoning agriculture in distress.According to government data, over 5,000 farmers committed suicide in 2005-2009 in Maharashtra, while 1,313 cases reported by Andhra Pradesh between 2005 and 2007. In Karnataka the number stood at 1,003, since 2005-06 till August 2009. In the last four years, cases in Kerala were about 905, Gujarat 387, Punjab 75 and Tamil Nadu 26. In April 2009, the state of Chattisgarh reported 1,500 farmers committed suicide due to debt and crop failure. At least 17,368 Indian farmers killed themselves in 2009, the worst figure for farm suicides in six years, according to data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Farmers across the country are continuously struggling to feed their families to survive. Crop failure due to several reasons has forced them to commit suicide .Recently another farmer fell victim to the prevailing water scarcity .He committed suicide after crop failure due to rain deficiency in his region. His name was Mohan Gohil ,a farmer from Nana Machiyala village of Amreli district. He committed suicide by jumping into an open well on the outskirts of his village.

A total of 152 farmers committed suicide due to various reasons, including crop failure and drought, in 2012-13, as per the recent reports. While 118 cases of suicide by farmers were reported from Maharashtra, in Andhra Pradesh 33 farmers ended their life due to various agriculture reasons.In Karnataka, too, there was a case of suicide by a farmer in the current year.

The count is on ,“Sources said at least five farmers have committed suicide during the last one month in Saurashtra region after their crop failed”,still no actions have been taken to SAVE FARMERS.

                                       

India Budget 2011 helped Suicide:The Indian Union Government's move to reduce the duty on import of raw silk from 30 per cent to 5 per cent, as announced in 2011-12 Budget had come as a rude shock for the State's sericulture farmers who were already agitated over the steep fall in cocoon prices.

People have the perception of "subsidies" being given to farmers, and this is one of the reasons why the urban folks think that farmers need to improve their act. But the vast majority of this subsidy is given not to the farmers themselves but to fertilizer producers. The "farmers" who get this subsidy are called Birla, Tata and Ambani! Also, this is given in such a way that the more you produce the lower the rate of subsidy, and the smaller amounts you produce, the more higher the rate of subsidy. In theory, this should support the "small farmers", but in fact the large producers overproduce and understate their output, just so they can avail of the higher rate of subsidy.

What can we do to alleviate all these problems you have discussed?

What we can do is sensitize ourselves, and be aware of the privilege we have. I make no great claim to wisdom. Simple solutions for complex problems can not solve them. Once great starting point that anyone can do is to sensitize himself/herself, and introspect. The fact that we have all gathered here means that we are at least attempting solutions and sensitizing ourselves, that's a start. There is systematic suppression, and we must open our eyes to it.Supportive communities here can help in many ways. The most direct answer is to recognize that there are those who are already in the fight to protect the poor and to bring some measure of opportunity to their lives, and for us to join them and support their needs.

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

SUBJUGATION OF WOMEN
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION (FGM)

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a traditional cultural practice, but also a form of violence against girls, which affects their lives as adult women. FGM comprises a wide range of procedures: the excision of the prepuce; the partial or total excision of the clitoris (clitoridectomy) and labia; or the stitching and narrowing of the vaginal orifice (infibulation).

Genital mutilation of girl, FGM is carried out with knives, scissors, scalpels, pieces of glass or razor blades. The mutilation is usually done without anesthetics. Instruments are usually not sterile. Mortality is high.
                                 
                                    


The purpose of FGM is to curb the sexual desire of girls and women and preserve their "sexual honor" before marriage. The massive mutilation is irreversible and extremely painful, and is usually done to young girlsPracticed in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Oman, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, amongst
others.

The practice has dreadful costs: many girls die afterwards, the survivors suffer their whole life from the psychological and medical consequences of the operation. All are traumatized and suffer from adverse health effects during marriage and pregnancy.

The number of girls and women who have been subjected to FGM  is estimated at around 137 million worldwide and 2 million girls per year are considered at risk. Most females who have undergone mutilation live in 28 African countries. Globalization and international migration have brought an increased presence of circumcised women in Europe and developed countries. Healthcare specialists need to be made aware and trained in the physical, psychosexual, and cultural aspects and effects of FGM and in the response to the needs of genitally mutilated women. Health education programs targeted at immigrant communities should include information on sexuality, FGM, and reproduction. Moreover, healthcare workers should both discourage women from performing FGM on their daughters and receive information on codes of conduct and existing laws. The aim is the total eradication of All forms of FGM.

Recently, immigrant female patients have come to our clinics for the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (i.e. molluscum contagiosum, viral warts, etc.). Some of these patients showed signs of previous genital mutilation. This prompted us to investigate the phenomenon of female genital mutilation (FGM).
We soon realized that the problemis of interdisciplinary relevance dermatovenereologic, gynecologic, sociologic, psychologic, etc.) and that the dermatologic community should be aware of this. The migration of millions of people from southern areas of the world to affluent countries in search of a better future for themselves and their children has produced cultural and social changes, in addition to remarkable effects from a medical viewpoint. Diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, and tropical dermatoses, considered to have been eradicated in industrialized countries, are reappearing.Migrations to northern industrialized countries have exposed the populations to different cultures and habits. Recently, in the European Union, the USA, Canada, and Australia, the phenomenon of FGM has been encountered. The presence of an increasing number of refugees and immigrants from countries in which this procedure is practiced has aroused much interest in this issue. As a result, several countries have passed laws against FGM. In some countries, programs have been started to produce awareness of the issue and to alert health and social services in order to protect girls at risk of FGM.