A woman, who survived a suicide attempt last year and is now suffering from Hepatitis B, has again been forced to think that death is the only way out of her miseries, despite having been given Rs1 million by the Punjab government.
“I will commit suicide again. At least, that way I will not have to see my children suffering,” says Muzammil Akbar, the 32-year-old woman, who attempted suicide along with her husband and two eldest children last year.
They all lived in Shahpur Kanjaran, a village just outside Lahore. Akbar Ali, her husband who was a rickshaw driver, had convinced her that taking their lives was the only way out. With five children to support, Muzammil also thought that it was “for the best”.
“We had loans that we were unable to repay and my husband was suffering from hepatitis C. With the interest swelling every day, and medical expenses going out of hand, what could we do?”
A month later when she was discharged from the hospital, she returned to her husband’s home. But things were different now.
Her brother-in-law, Amjad Ali, started physically abusing her and asked her to immediately repay a loan taken by Akbar. When the Punjab government announced compensation money, he demanded a share. “Amjad told us to leave the house when I said the money isn’t for him,” Muzammil says.
Her father-in-law, Mohammad Aslam, who sided with Muzammil decided to finally leave the house he actually had built for both of his sons.
“I was scared of my son, because he threatened to sexually abuse her,” says Aslam.
Two months later, she got Rs1 million from the Punjab government. They bought a house nearby but things went out of control when lenders, including her husband’s brother, started harassing them.
Muzammil paid off debtors after selling the house the next month, using up half the money she got for it.
She bought a two-room mud-brick house with the residual money.
“Last month, I was diagnosed with hepatitis B, requiring injections every week. My medical expenses go up to Rs4,000 (every month) and I don’t even have a job now,” says Muzammil, who was fired from a factory she used to work as a sewing apprentice two months ago.
Without any means to support her family, she does not know how she will pay for her children’s fees: her deepest desire now is to get her children educated.
According to doctors, her youngest daughter, Aisha, is suffering from tuberculosis, and Muzammil has not been able to afford her medicines. She showed her prescriptions, bursting into tears again.
“How long can I go on living on charity?” she complained. “The government spends millions of rupees on their foreign trips every other day. Why can’t they spend this money on alleviating poverty first?”
According to the latest report compiled by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, as many as 2,213 people committed suicides, with 331 of them because of acute financial distress.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2011.
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The mullahs and their followers, who insist that people should have as many children as they like and that population should not be controlled, should answer for this.