Left starving for two days, 17-year-old migrant girl commits suicide in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: A 17-year-old migrant girl from Madhya Pradesh ended her life on Monday after she and her four siblings were left starving for two days during the lockdown in Jalgaon, Maharashtra.

Anita Khemchand Chavan was staying with her father and siblings - three brothers and a sister - at Raisoni Nagar of Jalgaon city, 350 kilometers away from Mumbai.

Anil Badgujar, Police Inspector at Raisoni Nagar police station, said an inquiry revealed that this migrant family from Madhya Pradesh had no food for the last two days. 

"When we visited their tin-shed home, the small room had barely anything. Even the plastic bottles were empty. They had neither food grains nor pulses nor anything else left to eat," said Anil Fegade, a police constable.

He said when they asked the young siblings whether they had eaten anything, the answer was no.

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"Then we asked what they had eaten the previous day. They told us they had not eaten during the last two days. They were drinking only water and trying to survive. They were crying because of starvation and asking their elder sister to give them food," Fegade said.

"We were told that social workers and some NGOs provided them food packets but that did not last long. The girl's father was a daily-wager. Since the lockdown, he had no work. So, their hand-to-mouth existence was thrown into crisis," the police officer said.

Anita asked the neighbourhood people to provide her and her siblings' food. 

"The neighbours gave them food, but she was ashamed of her plight and was humiliated by the fact that she had to beg every day. She thought that she and her father can work and earn, but the lockdown had crippled their lives. She did not like to beg for food every day. So, one day, when her father was away in search of work, she asked her siblings to go out and hanged herself in the tiny room," said Fegade.

Badgujar said the plight of the migrant family left him and his fellow officers in tears.