Survivor recalls meeting Chhapaak protagonist

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 10

Widowed at the age of 24, she was subjected to acid attack at 25, resulting in loss of hearing in the left ear, underwent multiple surgeries, resumed studies and remarried five years ago.

Dr Sunita Sharma (now 43) is now settled in Balachaur town of Nawanshahr. She is looking forward to watching Deepika Padukone-starrer ‘Chhapaak’. “I met Laxmi Agarwal, on whom the film is based, at a book release function in Bangalore eight years ago, organised by the association of acid attack victims. We (the victims) were together for a week. The solidarity we struck helped me carry on with my life with even greater determination,” she says.

Working with a private hospital after postgraduation in hospital administration from the UK, Dr Sunita says, “When the District Social Security Officer (DSSO) told me about the invite from the state government to watch the movie in a Zirakpur theatre, he asked me whom I wanted to take along. I chose my lawyer and best friend Veena Sharma, who helped me fight the attackers. My past five years have been blissful. My husband understands the pain I have been through.”

Even though there have been at least five incidents of acid attack in the past eight years, Jalandhar DSSO Varinder Bains says none of these are are listed with his department as “no such information was passed on to us by the police.” It is perhaps for this reason that a 2013 acid attack survivor, Jatinder Kaur (56) of Jalandhar, has not been invited to the movie. Nor is she getting any monthly support from the government.

“I was given a one-time relief of Rs 3 lakh in 2016 for the expenditure incurred on surgeries. The biggest trauma for me is that I do not know who the accused were and why they threw acid on me, a month before my son’s wedding.”