(This story was first published on 16 February 2023. It is being reposted from The Quint's archives as part of our Women's Day coverage of gender stories that matter.)
"I was 14 years old when he threw acid at me. That was the first time I heard the word tezaab. Now that I've filed an FIR after 20 years, people say that I have scripted history," said Rukaiya Khatoon, 35, sitting on the stairs of her house in Uttar Pradesh's Agra.
On a balmy winter afternoon, Rukaiya fixed lunch for her son Umar, 7, after he returned from school. A while later, she left for work. Rukaiya is a baker at Agra's Sheroes Cafe, which employs acid attack survivors.
Attacked in 2002, allegedly by her sister's brother-in-law, Rukaiya filed an FIR against him in January 2023, over two decades after the incident.
Meanwhile, at the cafe, her friend and colleague Madhu Kashyap, 45, works as an accountant. She too was attacked in 1997, and filed an FIR against her attacker in January 2023 -- over 25 years after the incident.
"I want more victims to get inspired and file cases if they haven't yet," said Madhu.
Both minors at the time of the attacks, circumstances restrained Rukaiya and Madhu from not taking any legal action after the attacks. Both have so far not been able to avail any benefits provided to acid attack survivors.
'My Sister's Marital Life Was At Stake'
"My mother and I visited my sister's home in Aligarh once when she had a miscarriage. My sister's brother-in-law proposed marriage but my mother said that I was too young to get married. She refused to get me married off in this house since my elder sister was not happy there either. That night, he got acid and threw it on my face," Rukaiya recalled.
Even two decades later, Rukaiya remembers that moment like it happened yesterday. She mistook it for tea at first, she said. "After a few seconds, I felt like my face had been ripped apart," she narrated.
Madhu's attacker, however, was a complete stranger.
"There was a boy who liked me but I did not feel the same way about him. When he learnt that I was already engaged, he proposed to me and I refused. So, he threw acid on my face one day while I was returning home from Raja Mandi," she recalled.
Like Rukaiya, Madhu too remembers this moment like it happened yesterday and not 25 years ago. "It burnt really badly... It felt like my soul had left my body. I yelled but nobody came to help me. I was at the hospital when I gained consciousness," she said.
'Financial Distress, Circumstances at Home': What Stopped Them from Taking Action
The attacks on Rukaiya and Madhu took place when there were no specific laws governing the sale of acid.
In 2013, the Supreme Court of India banned direct over-the-counter sale of acid, made licenses mandatory to sell corrosive substances, and made it mandatory for purchasers to furnish identity proofs.
The lack of laws, however, were not the reasons that kept Madhu and Rukaiya from taking legal action.
For Rukaiya, her attacker was her sister's brother-in-law, and any kind of action was going to put the future of her sister and her two children at stake.
"When I woke up the next morning (after the attack), my brother had reached Aligarh from Agra and said that he wants to file an FIR. But my sister's husband and mother-in-law told him to take me away and that they will get the FIR done. They said that if my brother took any action, he should take our elder sister back home with us too," Rukaiya said.
"I saw what my brother had to go through. My brother would tell me that they (her sister's in-laws) have threatened to abandon my elder sister. She has two children, and we didn't have much financial support to run the family. My brother was a security guard at that time. If they would have abandoned my sister, it would have been added responsibility. How much could he have supported us?" Rukaiya said.
Madhu and her family's financial condition was similar at the time of the attack. The sole breadwinner of the family at the time, with a widowed mother and a minor brother dependent on her, Madhu used to take up several kinds of jobs, tutor children, and support the expenses of her own education as well.
"The recovery took over eight months after the attack. I underwent at least 10 surgeries but we did not have anybody's support. All my mother's savings, my late father's life insurance money, everything, was spent on my treatment. My mother took up odd jobs to pay for my surgery. I was the only earning member of the family before the attack," she recalled.
'It Always Pricked Me that I Hadn't Filed an FIR'
When Agra ADG Rajeev Krishna visited Sheroes Cafe in December 2022, he heard their stories and assured action in both their cases, following which he wrote a letter to the Agra police commissioner on 21 December 2022.
While Madhu's FIR was registered at the Tajganj police station on 7 January, 2023, Rukaiya’s FIR was was registered at Agra’s Etmaddaula police station on 8 January, 2023 under IPC section 326-a (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by acid).
But a question that many ask, what inspired both of them to take action after over two decades?
"It always pricked me that I could never file an FIR against him. All the other women (at Sheroes) had filed FIRs in their cases. The perpetrators were even punished in most of their cases. People, including family members, would say that I might have taken money from my attacker, which would bother me," Rukaiya said.
Rukaiya lamented that she got no support from the government. "Sheroes has given me a job but till when will it last? I want to provide all possible support to my son. I believe I will get that support now that I have filed an FIR and my attacker too might get punished. I just want justice for myself and punishment for him," she added.
Unlike Rukaiya, Madhu does not have much hope from her FIR.
"Nobody knows of his whereabouts now as there isn't much information about him. But if he is found, he will be punished," Madhu said.
"My FIR was not lodged, so I did not get any compensation. I did not get the pension that I am entitled to, or the certificate. Acid attack victims are now entitled to get government jobs. I am educated, so I am hoping I will get one," she added.
'Hope We Can Inspire Others'
Rukaiya got married after the attack, but is now separated from her husband. She has a seven-year-old son.
Madhu's fiance refused to call off the engagement after the attack. They got married four years after the attack took place and have two sons and a daughter.
"I got married to the person I was engaged to but my in-laws were against our wedding. My husband said that if the incident would have happened after the wedding, he would not have thrown me out," Madhu said.
Since their younger son is a special needs child, her husband stays at home to take care of him. Madhu is now the sole breadwinner in a family of five.
Despite all the hardships, Rukaiya and Madhu are glad that they can inspire others by filing FIRs after all these years.
"Everyone says to me that I have scripted history by filing an FIR after 20 years. Maybe, I am destined to get justice," Rukaiya said.
Madhu hopes that her FIR inspires all those survivors who have not taken action against their attackers yet.
Madhu's daughter Simi is proud of her mother for taking legal action after so long.
"I live in another city and something like this can happen to me too. I will have the courage to take action because of my mother. She has the courage of a tigress; she inspires me too," Simi said.
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