In the afternoon confusion of South Delhi, it seems, nobody took notice of the wraithlike woman struggling uphill to the place local people call “the forest,” one young daughter held in the crook of each arm and a third, a little girl in pigtails, scrambling behind.
When she reached the place she was looking for — a trash-strewn indentation in the earth — the woman strangled all three of them, the police said, and laid them on the ground in a row, the 8-month-old tucked between her sisters, ages 3 and 7. Then the woman tore a strip of fabric from her sari and fashioned a noose. She tried to hang herself but only lost consciousness.
The story of the mother, Radha Devi, figured in the newspapers for a few days last week, another of the domestic horrors that make up this city’s crime blotter. There was cursory speculation about what it meant: Neighbors said Ms. Devi, 27, was mortified over having no sons, which have traditionally been prized above daughters in India, in part because girls’ parents must provide a dowry, whereas boys are seen as future earners.
Yet it was impossible to point to one answer. Ms. Devi had been under psychiatric treatment, something her husband, Raju Singh — a slight, wilted-looking tailor — struggled to make possible in the hours before and after his shift. Educated through the fifth grade and married at 13, Ms. Devi became part of the great tide washing from India’s villages into its cities, hoping to rise out of poverty. Most people struggle to survive. Some get lost altogether. Full story...
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When she reached the place she was looking for — a trash-strewn indentation in the earth — the woman strangled all three of them, the police said, and laid them on the ground in a row, the 8-month-old tucked between her sisters, ages 3 and 7. Then the woman tore a strip of fabric from her sari and fashioned a noose. She tried to hang herself but only lost consciousness.
The story of the mother, Radha Devi, figured in the newspapers for a few days last week, another of the domestic horrors that make up this city’s crime blotter. There was cursory speculation about what it meant: Neighbors said Ms. Devi, 27, was mortified over having no sons, which have traditionally been prized above daughters in India, in part because girls’ parents must provide a dowry, whereas boys are seen as future earners.
Yet it was impossible to point to one answer. Ms. Devi had been under psychiatric treatment, something her husband, Raju Singh — a slight, wilted-looking tailor — struggled to make possible in the hours before and after his shift. Educated through the fifth grade and married at 13, Ms. Devi became part of the great tide washing from India’s villages into its cities, hoping to rise out of poverty. Most people struggle to survive. Some get lost altogether. Full story...
Related posts:
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- This man is cleaning toilets so that our daughters can lead a dignified life.
- India: a son is a blessing, a daughter a burden...
- 100 million more Indians classed as poor...
- India officials blasted after telling poor: 'You can eat for five pence'
- Plenty for few: India's economic miracle bypasses the poor...
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