19-Year-Old Girl Kills Herself After Parents Force Her To Leave Studies For Marriage

A 19-year-old girl reportedly killed herself after her family arranged her marriage without her consent and forced her to leave her studies midway in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, India.

The deceased 19-year-old girl, identified only as Priyanka, a resident of Kashiram colony, was reportedly preparing to attend her 12th-grade schooling this year. However, despite her several pleas not to look for a marriage proposal for her, her family started looking for a boy to wed her to behind her back, India Today reported.

Priyanka pleaded several times to her family members that she wants to complete her education and not get married at a young age. However, her parents did not take her appeal into consideration and finalized her union behind her back. Priyanka, who reportedly felt torn between her own dream to pursue an education and her family’s pressure to get married, reportedly felt upset and took her own life by hanging herself from the ceiling of their house.

Following the incident, the authorities recovered her remains and sent her body for an autopsy. The police have started an investigation into her tragic death.

Priyanka was reportedly the eldest of six siblings. She had two brothers and four sisters and her father worked as a daily wage laborer.

In a similar but unrelated incident, a 17-year-old schoolgirl reportedly killed herself after her parents were unable to pay a school fee amounting to US$9 (7,000 Indian Rupees) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India on Tuesday, May 3, Latin Times reported.

The teen, identified as R Brinda, from Lingam street in Madhavaram, was reportedly upset that her parents could not afford to pay her school fees. Unable to face the ridicule of her peers, Brinda seemingly decided to take her own life at her residence while her parents were away for work on Tuesday, May 3.

The investigating officers initially suspected that she took the drastic step due to a fear of facing the board exams, which began on Thursday, May 5. However, her family stated that Brinda likely killed herself after slumping into a deep depression over being bullied by her classmates.

Brinda's father Radhakrishnan works as a tailor and her mother is a day laborer. The family had reportedly not paid Brinda's school fee for the last term, and due to their poor economic condition, Radhakrishnan had borrowed money from some of his friends to make ends meet.