Ria Sharma | |
|---|---|
 Ria Sharma, in 2017 [1] | |
| Born | 13 October 1992 Dahanu, Maharashtra |
| Occupation | Social Activist |
| Awards | Global Goals Awards, 2017 |
Ria Sharma is a social activist and the first Indian to receive the UNICEF Global Goals Awards for 2017. [2] [3]
Sharma is the founder of NGO Make Love Not Scars that works in all aspects of rehabilitation for acid attack survivors in India. [4]
Sharma also founded the world's first rehabilitation centre for acid attack survivors [5] in the world.
Sharma was born in 1992 and grew up in New Delhi. She completed her schooling from Pathways World School in Haryana. [6] [7] She graduated from the Leeds College of Art, UK. As a part of her curriculum, she returned to India to make a documentary on acid attack survivors in 2014 at the age of 21. [8]
In 2014, Sharma founded Make Love Not Scars (MLNS) to support acid attack victims who are mostly women. [9] It actively supports survivors of acid attacks physically and mentally. [2] This is a crowd funded organization where the team organizes campaigns and reach out to volunteers and funders online through social media platform. [8] The organization helps the survivors get jobs to support their families. [10] Sharma made a statement to support acid attack survivors by starting her career by not wearing makeup for a year to stand in solidarity with the acid attack survivors. [11]
She founded India's first rehabilitation center for survivors of acid attacks. [9] MLNS also provides a platform for the survivors to interact with employers and get hired. They display their talents and skills on the portal, and urge organisations to find a suitable employee. [12]
End Acid Sale, a campaign that was started by the organization in mid 2015 aimed at putting a ban on retail sale of acids. The campaign created awareness and a petition drive was launched to help support the cause. [8] The campaign gained global support and became one of India most awarded campaigns. [13] End Acid Sale made history by being the first Indian campaign in 7 years to win the Cannes Gold Lion in Film [14]
In April 2015, The Supreme Court made it mandatory for both private and government hospitals across the country to provide full and free medical treatment to the victims. The treatment would include reconstructive surgery, medicines, accommodation, rehabilitation and aftercare. The government also increased the compensation to 3 lac INR per victim. Till date, 5 victims have been able to receive free treatment under the new guidelines by the government. [8]
In 2017, Sharma was the first Indian to be awarded the United Nations Goalkeepers Global Award. The award recognizes an individual who has made extraordinary efforts to lead a campaign, group or movement that has served to protect and better the lives of women and girls in a region, country or globally. Make Love Not Scars has been able to create a sustainable growth and momentum with the infrastructure to expand and evolve. [2]
In 2016, Sharma was awarded the British Council's Social Impact Award, for creating a positive social change and improving the life of others. [15]
In 2017, Sharma was awarded the India Today Woman Of The Year for Public Service. [16]
In 2017, under Sharma's leadership Make Love Not Scars was awarded The CNBC TV18 India Business Leader Award(IBLA) under the category "Brand Of The Year". [17]
The Acid Survivors Foundation is a Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation dedicated to raising awareness and preventing acid attacks and providing survivors with medical and legal aid.
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The United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is an international observance held annually on 26 June to speak out against the crime of torture and to honor and support victims and survivors throughout the world. The first 26 June events were launched in 1998.
Ruchira Gupta is a journalist and activist. She is the founder of Apne Aap, a non-governmental organisation that works for women's rights and the eradication of sex trafficking.
Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) is a UK-based international non-profit organization founded in 2002. It is a registered charity under English law. ASTI works to promote and protect the survivors of acid and burn violence, with the aim of ending acid violence globally. In addition to public education and awareness campaigns, ASTI has worked with and sustains organizations in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Uganda.
Sunitha Krishnan is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, a non-governmental organization that rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrates sex-trafficked victims into society. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2016.
An acid attack, also called acid throwing, vitriol attack, or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another "with the intention to disfigure, maim, torture, or kill". Perpetrators of these attacks throw corrosive liquids at their victims, usually at their faces, burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones. Acid attacks can lead to permanent, partial, or complete blindness.
Alok Dixit is a journalist turned social activist, fighting for freedom of Internet in India. He is the founder member of Save Your Voice, a movement against Internet censorship in India and Stop Acid Attacks, a campaign against acid violence.
The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-year-old physiotherapy intern, was beaten, gang-raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend, Avnindra Pratap Pandey. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. She was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment and transferred to Singapore eleven days after the assault, where she succumbed to her injuries two days later. The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad. Subsequently, public protests against the state and central governments for failing to provide adequate security for women took place in New Delhi, where thousands of protesters clashed with security forces. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. Since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim's name, the victim was widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning "fearless", and her struggle and death became a symbol of women's resistance to rape around the world.
Violence against women in India refers to physical or sexual violence committed against a woman, typically by a man. Common forms of violence against women in India include acts such as domestic abuse, sexual assault, and murder. There are several forms of violence against women, murder, female infanticide, sexual crimes, acid throwing, perpetuation.
Laxmi Agarwal is an Indian acid attack survivor, a campaigner for rights of acid attack victims, and a TV host. She is a former director of Chhanv Foundation, an NGO dedicated to helping acid attack survivors in India. She was attacked at the age of 15.
Anuja Trehan Kapur is an Indian criminal psychologist who is also known as a counselor, social activist and advocate. Editor- Atul Tiwari
Reshma Qureshi is an Indian model, vlogger, and anti-acid activist. In India, she is the face of []]. Her foray into modeling in the United States came when she walked the catwalk for Archana Kochhar at the 2016 New York Fashion Week.
Make Love Not Scars is an Indian nonprofit organisation based in New Delhi. The organisation works with acid-attack survivors and was founded by Ria Sharma. Tania Singh is the C.E.O of Make Love Not Scars. It assists with the complete rehabilitation of acid attack survivors, including providing survivors with financial, legal and educational help. As of November 6, 2016, the organisation had helped approximately 70 survivors across India. The NGO has recently been under scanner for collecting funds and not forwarding them to the victims.
Swati Maliwal is a social activist and politician. She currently serves as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha representing Delhi. She participated in the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement led by social activist Anna Hazare and later, served as the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) from 2015 to 2024.
Chhapaak (transl. Splash) is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language biographical drama film based on the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. Directed by Meghna Gulzar, the film stars Deepika Padukone in leading role of a character inspired by Agarwal alongside Vikrant Massey and Madhurjeet Sarghi. It marked Padukone's production debut, and acting comeback after two years since Padmaavat (2018). The film was jointly backed by Fox Star Studios, Ka Productions, Avernus Productions and Mriga Films.
Sangita Magar is a Nepalese woman who became an activist for victims' rights after surviving an acid attack. She and a friend were attacked when she was 16, but managed to take her SLC exam 25 days later. She subsequently fought to change laws pertaining to victims of such attacks and to the unregulated sale of acid.
Tania Singh is the C.E.O of Make Love Not Scars, a non profit that rehabilitates acid attack survivors in India. Singh runs a rehab centre and sanctuary for acid attack survivors in New Delhi. She is a graduate of Singapore Management University. While at college in Singapore, she had suffered a fire accident which led her to undertake research on the medical care facilities in India. As she did more research into the facilities available for burn patients, she saw a heart-rending photograph of an acid attack survivor on the internet and was left totally shocked. Upon discovering the lack of proper medical care available to acid attack survivors in India, Singh decided to do something about it. She began to volunteer at a then rising non-profit for acid attack survivors called Make Love Not Scars and is now the co-founder and C.E.O of the organisation. Previously, she had a brief stint at a start-up in Kuala Lumpur but quit within 3 months to return to India and take a permanent, full-time role with Make Love Not Scars.
Pragya Prasun is an Indian activist who survived an acid attack and set up the Atijeevan Foundation. The organisation has supported more than 250 other survivors and in 2019, she received the Nari Shakti Puraskar awarded the Government of India in recognition of her work.
The Chhanv Foundation is a non-governmental organization (NGO) set up by Alok Dixit and Ashish Shukla in 2013 in order to help the survivors of acid attacks. It runs cafés known under the social enterprise Sheroes Hangout in Agra, Lucknow and Noida which works for the rehabilitation and employment of acid attack survivors. The NGO received the Nari Shakti Puraskar and in 2020 stated it had helped over 100 survivors of acid attacks.