Acid Attack Victim Wants to Commit Suicide

New Delhi, July 27, 2012

Nine years ago, three men  broke into Sonali Mukherjee’s house, and attacked her with acid that melted her face and and left her almost deaf and blind.  Sonali was a 17-year-old sociology student, with big ambitions, and the men who attacked her were her neighbors who had subject her to constant sexual harassment.  When she threatened to tell the police, they attacked her.  Within three years, the men were out of jail on bail. She says, “Before the attack I was harassed and followed around for nearly two and a half years. Scared and frustrated, I complained to my father, who was a watchman in a mill. My father requested the boys to leave me alone, but to no avail. One night it came in the ugliest form – acid. My younger sister was also injured in the attack but she escaped with major injuries…The worst, however, are the continuing death threats that we are receiving from the attackers. They have now threatened to attack my sister and brother and kill my parents. We have been running like fugitives to escape them.”

Sonali has appealed for medical help from the Indian government, and tougher punishments for her attackers.  Or else she wants permission to commit euthanasia.  “For the last nine years, I am suffering … living without hope, without future. If I don’t have justice or my health, my only way out is to die,” she said.  Full report here

Girl Prevented from Studying by Parents Commits Suicide

Jaipur, Rajasthan, July 04, 2012

A 19-year-old girl in Rajasthan, Pooja Singh Kumawat killed herself by jumping in front of a train for not being allowed to study engineering, police said. In her suicide note,  said she was unable to pursue her dream of becoming an engineer because she was a girl.  Pooja was a good student who had dreams of becoming an engineer.  However she couldn’t convince her parents.  In her suicide note she wrote: “Hamesha ladkon ko hi opportunity kyo milti hai? Mai ladki hu isliye mujhe mauka nahi mila? Zindagi ke sapne purey na ho toh, zindagi ka kya fayda? B.Sc meri majboori hai. Bad luck. Apni marzi se jaan de rahi hu (why do only boys get all the opportunities? I am a girl, so I did not get the opportunity. When dreams are unfulfilled, there’s no point to life. BSc is my compulsion. I am taking my life of my will).”  Full report here

Teenage Girl at An Orphanage Commits Suicide

Ahmedabad, Gujrat, June 07, 2012

A 17-year-old girl, Aruna, committed suicide by hanging herself on Wednesday at Mahipatram Ashram, an orphanage at Raipur.  The girl had been brought to the ashram at the age of five. She used to live at there and had also studied at the school in the ashram campus.  Full report here

Suicide Rates for Indian Women More than Double Of Rates in Other Countries

The suicide rate in Indian women aged 15 years or older is more than two and a half times greater than it is in women of the same age in high-income countries, and nearly as high in China. The corresponding rate in men in the same group is between one to two times greater in men of the same age in high-income countries. India is a society steeped in the patriarchal tradition, where most women are still expected to stay at home, and bring up children. But more and more women are stepping out to work and aspiring to be independent and successful. But pressures of family, demands for dowry and domestic harassment – and violence – push many such young, married women over the edge in the country’s teeming cities and towns.  Report here

Newly Married Woman Hangs Herself Because of Dowry Demanded

Bangalore, November 21, 2011

Depressed by her husband’s constant harassment for dowry, a 25-year-old newly-wed woman, Leelavathi, ended life by hanging herself at her residence in Bilekahalli, off Bannerghatta Road in Mico Layout police station limits on Sunday. The deceased Leelavathi, a native of Chitradurga, was married to Manjunath, 30, an accountant in a garment factory seven months ago.  The report here.

Teenage Bride Kills Herself After Dowry Harassment

Madurai, November 26, 2011

A recently married teenage girl committed suicide allegedly due to dowry harassment near Madurai. Police said the girl resorted to the extreme step after her husband and mother-in-law allegedly demanded a sum of Rs one lakh as dowry. Read the report here

Woman Kills Daughters and Commits Suicide Over Dowry

Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh, September 22, 2011

Anguished over torture by her husband and mother-in-law over dowry, a 32-year-old woman, Venamma killed her two daughters aged 5 and 4 by pushing them into a well, and later committed suicide by jumping into the well. The incident took place at Vencherla village in Peddakothapally mandal of Mahbubnagar district . Read the report

A Female Bank Manager Is Victim of Dowry Harassment

Mumbai, 19 April 2011

Komal Cheda, 31, a Bank manager at HDFC,  one of India’s top banks, hanged and killed herself in Mumbai after being mentally and physically abused by her husband and his parents for dowry.  Her father said Komal’s ordeal started immediately after marriage. Her bankrupt husband and parents-in-law kept demanding money from Komal to repay their loan. “They did not allow her to employ a maid….Komal even gave Rs2 lakh to [her husband's] younger brother, for higher studies in the US.”  Read the report here.  

Why Are Indian Women Setting Themselves on Fire?

February 21, 2011, CHENNAI

28-year-old R Sushila was admitted to the burns ward of the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH) after she tried to immolate herself, When she died a week later with 90% burns, it was recorded as a suicide. However, nurses said she had told them she committed suicide unable to bear the pressure and harrassment from her husband and in-laws for dowry.