"Mother dies with two kids" - the headline in today's New Indian Express datelined Mandya makes an uneasy reading followed by a haunting day. In fact, this sort of news stories hits the headlines almost every day in newspapers and therefore, such news items hardly find place in the prominent area of the newspaper.
The kids are aged 10 and 6 years and mother is 35 years. She found the lake near her matrimonial home to end her life forever. As soon as she jumped into it with her kids, the lake has swallowed them as it was longing for it. Their lifeless bodies floated in the water and settled on the sidewalls when villagers procured them from there. Everyone gathered around became uncontrolled and burst into tears. Obviously!
After coming to her matrimonial home 16 years back, she had certain dreams like any girl of that age had. She was naturally attracted to the lush green shores of the nearby lake. As days went by, she took bathe in the lake water, swam, fished sometimes with neighbors. She took her kids there to give them bathe. Kids always enjoyed swimming and fishing in the lake. She would have never imagined of their end in the same lake!
Of course, she is the victim of domestic violence. Arrest of her husband and parents-in-law follows. Law takes its own course and there ends the matter. The agony, anxiety and horror created by their death do continue ticking in the heart. Who is in the line for the next attempt? I am really worried.
What was the responsibility and burden of those who cried on their dead bodies? How many times they would have had heard of her cries, screaming, shouting for help from her matrimonial home? How many attempts would have had been made to console her and save her from threat to life? Probably, the community members would have known everything and consoled her. There is an equal probability of non cooperation from the villagers during her strife. She grew in the middle of violence-torn domestic environment from a bride to the multiple roles of wife, daughter in law and mother of two kids. She took the extreme step when it was unbearable.
A mother never takes such daring step even if she suffers from extreme hunger. She would have definitely had a past wherein she had consoled herself in each stage of sufferings resulted from domestic violence. Suicide or killing oneself is the last resort one could depend on. Till then, all efforts would have been tried and failed. She would have had approached her closest people for a solution to continue her life for the sake of kids. All have failed miserably! As a result, her lifeless body floated in the lake water. Within her exposed world, it was the only way out for her to release her soul.
What is the use of the legislations, schemes and programs with funds and salaried people that aimed at delivering justice to vulnerable women? It all looks like a mockery of justice. Unless they are accessed by the needy in time, what great status are we going to achieve by just boasting of them?
The appalling number of such wives, daughter-in-laws and mothers ending lives is on a constant rise; it is much more than the number of farmers who committed suicide. The difference is that farmers' suicide gets a hype while mothers' death toll does not create an outcry.
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