Sonali Mukherjee: acid attack victim wins game show millions
by Anorak | 1st, December 2012
SONALI Mukherjee, 27, is now a rupee millionaire! (That’s £28,200.) Miss Mukherjee won her cash on TV’s Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. The other notable thing about Sonali Mukherjee is that she is badly scarred. In 2003, men broke into her home in Dhanbad poured acid on her face. The attack left her partially blind and deaf. She has no eyelids.
The three men were jailed. For three years. They are now free. Sonali Mukherjee wanted to die. She wanted to be euthanised.
As she says:
“I’ve had 22 operations and nine more are remaining, so that at least my eyes and ears are functional. If I recover, I want to help people like me. In my nine years of struggle, I have faced a lot. I know the kind of difficulties we have to face, with no help from any quarter.”
Her story became front-page news. And then she was invited to appear on the TV show. And – get this – she won. What are the odds?
She now hopes to be inspire other acid victims to speak out against a heinous crime.
“I appeal to the government to ensure that these cases are not repeated. Make a separate law, which is not just on paper, but is followed.”
According to the charity Acid Survivors Trust International:
Acid violence is a worldwide phenomenon that is not restricted to a particular race, religion or geographical location. It occurs in many countries in South-East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the West Indies and the Middle East, and there is anecdotal evidence of attacks in other regions. One of the greatest challenges in combating acid violence is the fact that many attacks go unreported and undocumented, making it difficult to discover the true number of victims in a given country or community.
Most of the victims appar to be poor women. Most if not all of the attackers are men. If it’s not about race, religion or location, it might be about misogyny.
Posted: 1st, December 2012 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
