Suicide by farmer at Tikri: Breadwinner no more, she stares into void

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, March 2

Pakasma village resident Renu Rana and her 11-year-old daughter Kanika find themselves caught up in a whirlpool, in a situation where it is hard to make sense of the reality. With her husband no more, Renu stares at an uncertain future for her and her daughter, who studies in Class VI.

On the morning of January 19, Jai Bhagwan Rana (42) and other villagers had left for the Tikri border to join protesting farmers. He had been to the protest site three to four times earlier as well. He had told his wife Renu that he would be back by evening.

At the dusk fell, her wait stretched into the night but there was no news of him. At Tikri, Jai Bhagwan had consumed poison. He was taken to Delhi hospital, where he passed away on the intervening night of January 20 and 21. He was the sole breadwinner of his family.

Jai Bhagwan owned merely half an acre of ancestral land in Pakasma village and used to take land on lease to make ends meet.

“I am still in trauma. Before the farmers’ agitation, we all were living happily. There was no problem. His frequent visits to the Tikri border made him unhappy. He was pained at the plight of farmers. Every day, he would discuss the farmers’ agitation with us,” says Renu with tears welling up in her eyes.

She is a postgraduate and B Ed degree holder, but doesn’t have a job.

Renu says he never sounded pessimistic. “I think the decision to end his life was spontaneous after having listened to speeches at the Tikri border.”

In this hour of crisis, she says she has no idea how she would eke out a living. “No representative of the state government has visited us so far. Only former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda visited us and provided us with financial aid.”

Jai Bhagwan’s cousin Yogesh Rana, who lives across the lane, says the state government should provide Renu with a job so that she could earn a livelihood.