ADILABAD: A 26-year-old Dalit youth identified as Ramakanth took his own life by consuming pesticide near a check post on the outskirts of Boraj village on Thursday. He collapsed, lost consciousness and died by the time a 108 ambulance arrived. In a suicide note purportedly written by him, Ramakanth said that he had decided to end his life over not receiving any welfare schemes, particularly Dalit Bandhu.
His family and relatives shifted his body in an auto to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for a postmortem on Thursday night.
On Friday, leaders from various Dalit organisations, along with the family members, staged a protest outside the mortuary where Ramakanth’s body was kept. G Mahender, the district president of BSP, demanded that the government provide `30 lakh as compensation and a double-bedroom house to the kin of the victim.
After learning of the situation, Superintendent of Police (SP) D Uday Kumar Reddy and other staff members visited the mortuary. District Collector Rahul Raj, over the phone, assured to provide all eligible benefits to Ramakanth’s family and ordered an inquiry. This assurance was made in response to the demands put forth during the protest.
The protestors were taken to a police station in a vehicle and Ramakanth’s body was shifted to his native where a funeral was conducted.
Kandi Srinivas Reddy, the Adilabad Assembly constituency candidate from the Congress, extended his support to the grieving family. He urged the government to deliver justice to the family and said that a Congress-led government would strive to fulfill the public’s aspirations.
(Suicide helplines -- Maithri, Cochin: +91 239 6272; Sumaitri, New Delhi: 2338 9090, Sneha, Chennai: 91-44-2464 0050, 91-44-2464 0060, Aasra, Mumbai: 9820466726, Fortis MentalHealth: 8376804102)