EPIDEMIC OF SUICIDES

Hokitika Guardian, 3 January 1930, Page 5

EPIDEMIC OF SUICIDES

CALCUTTA, November 21

There has been an alarming increase in Calcutta of suicides among Bengali girl wives. Scarcely a week passes without at least two cases being reported. The favourite method of terminating life was formerly a draught of mustard oil in which, opium had been mixed, hut* since the introduction of a strict supervision of drug stores these unhappy women have taken to drenching their clothing with paraffin and setting themselves alight. The coroners’ inquiries invariably show that these wives, still in their teens and often immature, are driven to death by inhuman cruelty in the home Sometimes the husband is the cause, hut most frequently liis mother, sisters, and other relatives are responsible.

“ALWAYS NAGGING.”

In one of two cases reported to-day the jury returned a verdict of Suicide on. account of ill-treatment by the husband and his mother, their inhumanity being due to the failure of the girlwife to bear chiklrep.

It was revealed in the other case that the Victim, Parulbala Dassi, aged 16. informed a doctor as she lay dying tnat her mother-in-law was always nagging her and suggesting that she should burn or poison herself because her father had not given her a gold necklace. The husband had taken no notice of his wife’s ill-treatment'.