A 17-year-old girl (name withheld) who ended her life by jumping into the river Jhelum in Sopore on Monday this week was suffering from depression, as the family was financially weak, her widowed mother the only one earning food for her children by working day and night.
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As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the girl’s brother is confined to bed, suffering from a chronic kidney disease. The children lost their father in 2009. The girl was suffering from depression and anxiety, for which she was on medication for nearly three years.
The teenager’s body is still untraceable, with the administration making all efforts to retrieve it from the river Jhelum. The search operation entered the fourth day on Thursday with teams of SDRF and WUCMA pressed into service, besides local fishermen trying to find the body.
Fareeda Begum, the girl’s mother, is now left with an ailing son. She has appealed to people to help her financially as she is unable to bear the burden of expenses that include medicines and treatment of her son.
In a distressed appeal, the widow said she was trying hard to meet the ends but the desperate situation has forced her to ask people for help.
“Whatever I was earning would be spent on the ailing son and my daughter who was undergoing treatment for the past three years,” she said.
Donors can provide financial assistance by depositing money in the woman’s Bank Account No. 0566040800000156, IFSC code JAKAOECSOPR.
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Though NGOs and political parties across Kashmir valley are claiming that they are working for the people, where are they now, locals asked.
“Wasn’t it the responsibility of the local Auqaf Committee, NGOs working in Sopore to look after the family?” Khan Jahangir, a local resident, asked. “Whenever there is any programme or they have to distribute a kit, they are often seen on social media sites, but at ground level they are doing nothing,” he said. “As a society, we have completely failed.”
