Inquiry ordered into girl student’s suicide in Odisha’s Ganjam district
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Brahmapur, June 27:
An inquiry has been ordered into the tragic death of a Class VII student, who allegedly committed suicide, after her parents failed to buy her notebooks and pencils for her studies, in Odisha’s Gajjam district.
The district collector of Ganjam Prem Chandra Chaudhary has asked the district education officer (DEO) and district project coordinator of the Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan (SSA) to inquire into the details of the case and submit a report on the actual cause of the girl’s suicide.
This inquiry will be independent of the police investigations in the case, he said.
The 14-year-old girl Jayanti had committed suicide on 25 June after her parents said they didn’t have enough money to buy her basic stationery like pencil and notebook and other study materials.
Jayanti, a resident of Aska town in Ganjam district which is about 170 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, had been requesting her parents to pay some money for her studies after the school – where she was recently promoted to class 7 – opened June 23.
Her parents said they needed some time to arrange the money. Upset with the delay, the girl Wednesday poured kerosene on herself and set herself on fire at home when her parents were away.She sustained over fifty percent burn injuries. Some neighbours rescued her and took her to the local hospital where she died, the police said.
The girl’s father Bijoy Nayak, who was a daily-wager, recently suffered a paralytic stroke and is now unable to add to the family income. Her mother Iswari works as a maid.
The couple has three other minor children as well.
The inquiry ordered by the district collector is an eyewash, I have prayed the National Human Rights Commission to set up a high level independent inquiry committee to know the lacuna and laxity of Odisha State Government in implementing the acts and rules for which the girl committed suicide in my complaint dated 26.6.2014 with NHRC, New Delhi.
This is the pathetic condition of poorest people in poor state Odisha. The family of Bijaya Nayak consists of six members and the only earning member is Iswari Nayak (wife of Bijaya Nayak and mother of deceased girl) as Bijay Nayak is suffering from paralytic stroke and unable to do physical work.
Government has made lot of acts, rules and even amended the constitution for the uplift of poor citizens of this country but the Central Government as well as the State Government never paid its attention to see that whether the acts and rules are properly implicated or not and poor girl like Jayanti face the consequence owing to the carelessness act of Public Servants in our country.
It is a matter of investigation that:-
1. Whether the family of Bijay Nayak is in Below Poverty Line or not,
2. If the family is below poverty line then whether they were getting BPL facility or not,
3. Earning member and head of the family Bijay Nayak suffered from paralytic stroke before six months, whether this person was given free medical treatment to recover from his ill health or not, what type of steps were taken by the Health department and its Public servants,
4. There is a fund kept for poor students in school level to help them to purchase notebooks, pencil, pen etc, if there is a provision to help the poor students then why the school has not helped the deceased girl,
6. The girl belongs to SC category but to the great surprise she did not get her stipend of the previous year owing to the carelessness of the government, if she would have got the stipend in time then her life could have been saved.
5. Whether the Right To education act is being violated by the State government or not,
6. Whether the state government has violated Article 14, 21, 21(a), 39(e) & 47 of Constitution of India or not.
JAYANTA KUMAR DAS (RTI ACTIVIST),9861770749(M)