Indian girl's one-rupee suicide

BBC ^ | 9/24/05 | BBC

[wagglebee]

A 12-year-old Indian girl committed suicide after her mother told her she could not afford one rupee - two US cents - for a school meal.

Sania Khatun lived with her mother in a village north of Calcutta under a tarpaulin sheet provided by the state.

Sania normally ate nothing at school but on Friday saw classmates eating rice and asked for one rupee.

Her mother scolded her and when she returned from work found her daughter hanged from the ceiling with a sari.

"She wanted just one rupee... but her mother could not give her the money due to poverty," government official Nakul Chandran Mahato told the Reuters agency.

'Snapped'

The mother, Jainab Bewar, is a widow who works as a maid in the village of Paraspur, 200km (125 miles) north of Calcutta.

She normally fed her daughter with food she could get from the houses she worked in.

India's Telegraph newspaper said Sania was tempted by the sight of classmates eating puffed rice and oil cakes.

Ms Bewar told the newspaper: "I did not give her the money as I did not have it. I snapped at her when she insisted on it."

She and her sons never earn more than $13 a month combined, she says.

India has seen unprecedented economic growth in recent years but many remain untouched by the improvements.

A recent UN report said half of India's children were still malnourished.

[wagglebee]

This is a truly heartbreaking story. But what strikes me is the audacity of the left in America to label people with cars, homes, air conditioning and big screen televisions as "poor" when you contrast it with the third world.

[krb]

India's Telegraph newspaper said Sania was tempted by the sight of classmates eating puffed rice and oil cakes

Oil Cakes?

[Tax-chick]

Fry bread. Cooked in oil.

[Mount Athos]

puffed rice and oil, they have both puffed rice and edible oil

[Frank_2001]

Agreed!

[Cicero]

Oil Cakes?

From Halliburton, probably.

Seriously, this is a sad story. Yet on the whole the poor in India lead happier and more contented lives than the poor in America, despite the fact that they are REALLY poor.

[LauraleeBraswell]

It wasn't because her mother couldn't afford a school meal. People who commit suicide are depressed. It's a medical problem.

[wagglebee]

Thanks. I was wondering the same thing, but didn't want to be the one to ask.

[konaice]

But Hey, its a good place to go to get Surgery....

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1491138/posts

[DJ Taylor]

Yes, the United States is one of the few places in the world where poor people are overweight. By the grace of God, we truly live in the land of plenty.

[wagglebee]

So, you believe that all depression is caused by chemical imbalances, that there is no such thing as "situational" depression?

[endthematrix]

Our US poor don't know what poor is.

One "seared" memory was watching a homeless man in the Gold Coast of Chicago eating out of garbage cans in an alleyway. As disgusting as it was to watch, I had little remorse compared to those whose fates are much more around the globe. This man was FAT. He picked through garbage that was "fresh" and there was plenty of it. Take out Chinese and whatever else that was one day old. He was happy a clam, eating unpaid "leftovers" using a trashcan lid for a plate. He was FULL.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

But Hey, its a good place to go to get Surgery....

I'll bet the rice cakes are cheaper too.

[endthematrix]

Just look at my post #12

[LexBaird]

Remember this story next time you hear the poverty pimps here in the US talking about child poverty in America.

[wagglebee]

I was in a grocery store not long ago and watched a woman who had paid for her junk food with food stamps get into her new Lexus.

[phil112]

simply heartbreaking - where is babs and company?

[konaice]

Remember this story next time you hear the poverty pimps here in the US talking about child poverty in America.

What are you talking about. This posting IS A POVERTY PIMP.

Its news just because it is so "out there", not because poverty is rare.

[MarkeyD]

Yeah, but it was probably just a lease :)

[jocon307]

here's my question, they lived "under a tarpulin" yet the girl hanged herself in the home. How did she mangage that?