Black Mirror

After surviving an acid attack, Tuba Tabassum’s lust for life is all-consuming.

- Suchismita Ukil

I FIRST MET TUBA TABASSUM AT WORK. She was covered from head to toe, wearing salwar kameez, her dupatta bound tightly around her head, oversized sunglasses firmly in place. Her parents, Arif Ashraf and Tabassum Parveen, had accompanied her for some paperwork to Care Today, the India Today Group’s corporate social responsibility initiative. She is preparing for a national-level medical entrance test later this year and Care Today is funding her tuition at a private institute in New Delhi. Coming from a small village in Bihar, she needs all the help she can get. She is 18, a young woman finding her way in the world. She is also an acid attack survivor.

ACID ATTACK IS A FORM of gender-based violence, which in turn is a violation of human rights. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), ratified by the Indian government, prohibits “violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately”, resulting in perpetuation of gender inequality and discrimination.