While India was celebrating two of the countries women athletes for bagging a silver and a bronze medal at the Rio games, a 20-year-old national-level handball player ended her life because she couldn’t afford Rs. 120 ($2.40) a day fare to commute to her college, NDTV reported.
Pooja Kumari wrote a letter in blood to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, making a desperate plea for help, before she committed suicide on Saturday. “Mere parivar ki madad karo PM Modi ji” (Please help my family, PM Modi), she wrote in her suicide note.
A sophomore at Khalsa College, Patiala, Pooja wrote in her suicide note that she was denied the free hostel facility guaranteed due to the sports quota.
Her father, Prabhu Chauhan, a street vendor said without the free hostel and food facility, his meagre income would not suffice for cost of commuting. He said Pooja had been stressed over this for some days.
“I have to think a hundred times before spending five rupees. But the denial of hostel means I spend Rs. 3,720 every month to reach the college campus.. which my family can’t bear,” reads the note Pooja wrote.
In the note written in blood, she urged PM Modi to ensure that "underprivileged girls like me should be provided free education facility."
However, the college administration has refuted the claims made by Pooja in her suicide note. The college authorities say she had been granted free admission to the college and she had not raised the matter of a free hostel room with the college administration.
Pooja, in particular, has accused the head of the physical education department of the college of harassing handball, kabaddi and hockey players who have failed to win medals in the previous session.
The police have filed a case of abetment of suicide against the HoD of Physical Education, though the college has come out in defence of him.
