20-year-old ends life to ‘reduce family’s burden’ in Mumbai – Times of India

MUMBAI: When Vakola police received a call on Monday about a 20-year-old having hanged herself, officers began doing the paperwork and panchnama rather mechanically. This was, after all, one among several suicides they had come across since the Covid-19 outbreak.
But the hardened investigators were left moist-eyed after a conversation with the woman’s family revealed why she had taken the drastic step. Kavita (not her real name) did not wish to add to her parents’ financial debts as she watched them struggle to make ends meet day after day.
Kavita, her three siblings and parents lived in a 10ft X 10ft room in a Santacruz East slum. Every inch of the house reflected how poor the family was. And yet when police officers Pravin Rane and Bharat Satpute squeezed inside, they were struck by how clean and tidy the room was. “We started making inquiries with Kavita’s parents, but they were absolutely still and wouldn’t say a word,” Satpute said.
Girl wanted to sell her chain to fund mobile for sibling’s schooling
Given their policing experience, the officers initially presumed that a failed love affair or a tiff with parents over academics may have been the likely motive for the suicide. They turned to Kavita’s siblings as finding out the reason was a must for the investigation to progress. “For some time, Kavita’s youngest brother was the only one who spoke, probably due to his tender age. Then the other siblings began to open up. An image of a young woman determined to give her family a better life came up before our eyes,” said Rane.
Kavita was in Class X when her eldest sister was married off. He father, an auto driver, and her mother, a househelp, did not have funds to arrange the wedding and borrowed heavily. They had no money left to pay for Kavita’s junior college. With great difficulty, having begged and pleaded with acquaintances, her father gathered Rs 6,000 to pay for Kavita’s Class XI fees. Kavita left for college to pay the fees but turned around midway and returned home. She told her mother there was no way her father would be able to repay the Rs 6,000 and so it was only logical that she start working and lend him a hand. Kavita started working in a factory the very next day and even managed to save up a small part of her salary.
In 2020, the pandemic struck, and the family’s financial situation worsened as work dried up. Meanwhile, Kavita’s brother needed a smartphone for online classes, and his parents had none. Kavita did not want her brother’s education to suffer the way she had had to drop out. She took out a gold chain that she had purchased from her savings and asked her mother to sell it for purchasing the smartphone. Her mother’s eyes welled up at the gesture, but she had to refuse Kavita’s request. “Her parents had found a match for Kavita, and the gold chain was the only piece of jewellery they had for her wedding. Kavita quickly realised that her parents would have to borrow heavily for the second time for a wedding. The stress gave her headaches and acidity. Eventually, she decided to end her life (by hanging) in the hope that it would lighten her family’s financial burden,” said Rane.
Moved immensely by Kavita’s story, Rane wrote a long, emotional post online. His acquaintances who read it were equally touched, and some have offered to help Kavita’s family financially as a tribute to her.