Acid attack survivor Manini Bisoyi, fighting and winning

After overcoming unimaginable battles, Manini Bisoyi (22), an acid attack survivor has given life a second chance. She is currently a chef and a server at Sheroes cafe in the Noida sector 21A. She is also a content creator on YouTube and has 8-9k followers.

16-year-old Manini wanted to be enrolled in the best college and make her parents proud. Despite belonging to a small district Surada block in Odhisha, where society wanted her to get married early, she was bent on pursuing higher education and learning new skills. However, one incident turned her life upside down. A 27-year-old man attacked her with acid scarring her existence.

The man, 11 years elder than her, wanted to marry Manini. Manini tells that he persisted and was trying to force her to marry him. However, when she relented his advances, he attacked her with acid at midnight at her home. She fell to the ground screaming and crying in pain and her mother broke down. It was her neighbour who came to her rescue. Manini doesn't remember the next 1.5 years as she remained unconscious most of the time in the hospital at Cuttack, Odhisha.

Her struggles did not end here. "When I looked at myself for the first time after 2 years, I was scared. I had lost all the will to live." Life had taken an unexpected wrong turn for her. Her friends abandoned her and she felt completely alone.

During her surgeries, she met Rani who is also an acid attack victim, at the SCB Hospital in Cuttack. Rani worked for an organisation that worked towards the upliftment of Acid attack survivors.

After returning home, her parents and relative encouraged her to start a new life. On a visit to a local tehsil, Manini discovered a training-and-employment post in Bangalore. Manini asked her parents whether she worked there or not. Her parents were happy for her.

In the beginning, she was very afraid to think whether she would be accepted. Her perseverance kept her going. Manini worked in the packaging team of a cloth manufacturing company for 2 years. However, she lost her job during the second wave of the Covid pandemic.

After coming home, her friend Rani helped her land a job at the Sheroes Cafe, which is run by acid attack survivors at Noida International Stadium, Sector 21. She recently completed an internship there and is living with the Sheroes team.

Manini has emerged stronger and she has also decided to pursue further education.