MALKANGIRI: Plethora of government schemes and measures to alleviate poverty notwithstanding, a tribal woman committed suicide before poisoning her two children ostensibly due to lack of sources for sustenance in the tribal district.
The 35-year-old woman, Sita Madkami, was staying alone with her 4-year-old son Debendra and 5-year-old daughter Dharitri at Goudaguda village under Malkangiri police limits after the death of her husband Muka Madkami (35) two months back.
The couple could hardly meet their both ends as Muka, a daily labourer, was suffering from illness for a long time.
Besides BPL rice, they were not getting any benefit from the state government schemes.
According to villagers, Sita did not have any sources of income or any relatives to support her after Muka’s untimely death.
Her parents-in-law, who are also extremely poor, are staying separately.
On Saturday night, Sita mixed poison with food and fed it to her kids. Later, she also consumed it to commit suicide.
As they started vomiting after taking the poison-laced food, their neighbours and ASHA workers rushed them to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH).
While Sita died in the hospital in the early hours of Sunday, the condition of the two children undergoing treatment was stated to be critical.
The villagers suspected that Sita was under extreme economic duress and might have taken the extreme step after failing to take care of her children.
Malkangiri police station IIC Ranjan Kumar Sahu confirmed the death of Sita and said the cause of death would be ascertained after getting the post-mortem report.