Sonali Mukherjee: A drought of action in a sea of reaction

Sonali Mukherjee is a blind, nearly deaf, and penniless 27-year-old woman. At the age of 17, she was assaulted by three intruders who broke into her Dhanbad, India home in April 2003 and poured acid on her after sexually harassing her for years. Since then, her family has spent their savings treating her injuries, her assailants have been released from jail, and now they have begun a campaign of death threats that have turned Sonali and her family into fugitives. Sonali lost her grandfather to shock shortly after the attack, and her mother has slipped into a depression. Today, she needs approximately $30,000 to pay for the balance of restorative surgeries.

Nine years later, Sonali has requested the Indian government to either intervene by controlling the assailants and providing funds medical treatment or grant her permission to die.

Here’s Sonali’s plea for help. I’ve hired translators to translate and transcribe it into English, which I’ve reproduced below.

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