Crusader for acid victims falls upon hard times
NEWDELHI: Laxmi Aggarwal, 30, the acid-attack survivor who won hearts with her courage and poise, in circumstances that would have seen many crumble, and was one of the winners of the US state department’s International Women of Courage Award in 2014 (First Lady Michelle Obama presented it), is now without a job and may soon be without a home.
That India’s best-known acid attack survivor is finding it dif- ficult to get by may surprise many, but activists say it highlights the plight of acid attack survivors in general. In 2005, acid was thrown on Aggarwal by a stalker (the story of many acid attack victims in India).
Today, Aggarwal is facing possible eviction from her tworoom flat in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar because she can’t afford the rent. “People believe that I must be well-off since I received so many awards, walked the ramps, gave talks – but I have no money to meet even my basic needs,” she said. Aggarwal has been without a job for a year.
Four years ago, her life seemed the perfect happily-ever-after story. She and her partner, Alok Dixit, the founder of the Stop Acid Attack campaign, were expecting a child. The cou- ple, in the news for their conscious decision to live-in and not marry , had also co-founded an NGO, Chhanv Foundation.
Soon after the daughter was born, though, the two separated on account of some differences. That was three years ago.
Aggarwal had custody. She also had a job — a director of the NGO, for which she was paid a honorarium of ₹10,000 a month. That stopped last year when she quit, again due to differences with Dixit, who said he has not been able to provide any financial assistance to their child.