The heart of the city froze for 15 minutes as the Students Against Acid Attack, an online youth collective, came out on the streets for the biggest ever “freeze mob” protest to show their solidarity towards the victims of acid attack and raise awareness about the increasing number of such incidents in the country.
Freeze mobs is a silent and innovative way of protesting by “standing still frozen in various poses”. It is done in a public place, with assemble of group of people and often with the intention of taking passerby by surprise to convey their social message.
Students participating in the event froze outside the Metro station in Connaught Place, leaving whatever they were doing, as soon as a member of the collective group blew whistle at 4 pm on Friday.
A freeze mob is a type of flash mob. The only difference being that here, people freeze in a position of their choice to grab other people’s attention.
The idea is to draw people’s attention towards the heinous crime of acid attack. With many others, who remain statue for brief moment, there was Archana Kumari, a 24-year-old acid attack victim, who stood there in the middle of the freeze mob protesters, with “I am an acid attack victim” written in fromt of her.
The Students Against Acid Attack is demanding better laws and treatment/compensation facilities for the victims and the families. The protesters are demanding stringent punishment for those accused involved in acid attacks.
Further, the group has requested for the ban of readily available of hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid and nitric acid which are being misused by many people.
The acid had left Archana Kumari, who was attacked by acid in 2008 after she rejected a proposal of a boy in her native village in Uttar Pradesh, blind in one eye, partially deaf and melted half of her face and also limited use of her arms. Since then, she has undergone 22 surgeries.