Aishwarya Reddy, a sophomore at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, died by suicide on November 2.
About 70 kilometers from Hyderabad, in the Srinivasa colony of Shadnagar, is where Srinivas Reddy and his family reside. A cloak of sadness prevails in their home, as on November 2, their eldest daughter Aishwarya, a BSc (Honors) student in Mathematics at Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College in Delhi, took her own life. Five days after his death, his tragic story reached the media and since then, the family home has been packed, with regular visits from local journalists and politicians.
.jpg)
Inside the two-bedroom house, a photo of Aishwarya, with a tilak on her forehead, now rests on her home television. Several other photos of Aishwarya and her younger sister, Vaishnavi Reddy, and the parents, taken over the years, adorn the walls of the house. The family built the little house not long ago.
Aishwarya House in Shadnagar, Telangana
‘The blockade affected the family’s income’
Aishwarya’s father, Srinivas Reddy, works as a bicycle mechanic and his mother sews clothes for a living. Two sewing machines take up considerable space in the living room-kitchen of your home. Her father told TNM: “I used to earn Rs 400 per day and my wife earned Rs 200 per day. With 600 rupees we earned, we managed to manage the house and our family. During the confinement, we barely made any money. “
Unable to pay the youngest daughter’s fees, a few years ago, the parents stopped sending her to school after class 8.
‘Aishwarya was a brilliant student’
Speaking of how she has always been a brilliant student, her mother Sumathi said: “She had obtained the first rank in Class 10 and the second in Class 12. She wanted to become an officer of the IAS. I had always told him that if I made it to the civil interview, that would fulfill my dreams. ” According to her parents, she was like any other teenager who wanted to watch movies and hang out with her friends. This behavior, similar to that of other young people his age, often led to tense situations at home.
Aishwarya’s parents
Last year, when Aishwarya was admitted to LSR, her parents shared how many people who knew the university had told them: “Aishwarya had managed to get into a top-tier institute where neither the Prime Minister nor the President could recommend a seat for admission. “Convinced, they agreed to support her ambition and her strong drive to continue studying in life. They took out a loan and decided to support her.
The Aishwarya books she left behind
“We take Rs 2 lakh as a loan. We had to return it in 84 months. Every month, I pay a little less than 5,000 rupees as a fee to repay the loan, ”said her father.
In her first year, Aishwarya had to pay 25,000 rupees as college fees and 75,000 rupees as hostel fees. Aishwarya’s rank in Class 12 made her eligible to qualify for the INSPIRE scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Technology. However, according to the Student Federations of India (SFI), since March, the funds for the second year of her scholarship never reached Aishwarya.
Aishwarya returned home in March prior to the lockdown and had been home ever since.
‘Aishwarya wanted a laptop ‘
According to a survey conducted by the LSR Students Union Integrated Education Committee, which is now public, Aishwarya mentioned how she was struggling at home, without an internet connection and without a laptop. She mentioned that the classes lasted between five and eight hours a day and, with her data package, she was able to attend less than 3 hours of classes. He had also stated in the survey: “They are teaching well, but I don’t have a laptop and my mobile phone is not working well, so I can’t do any practical work.”
His father’s eyes filled with tears when he remembered how extremely close to him she was. She had asked him for a laptop. “They told me how much 40,000 rupees cost. I told him I would try to fix the money. I borrowed money. He had raised 5,000 rupees and hoped to raise the rest. “
‘The government should support bright students’
When TNM visited the grieving family, a local news channel reported how the head of Congress, Rahul Gandhi, had tweeted about Aishwarya. Seeing this, Aishwarya’s mother and sister collapsed.
Later, the mother mentioned that a brilliant student like Aishwarya should never have to face a similar situation. “The government should have a mechanism to identify and support bright students who cannot afford a quality education,” her mother said. The family was informed that Congressman Revanth Reddy was likely to visit the family.
His father recounted how on the day he decided to kill himself, he refused to eat after having a heated argument with his mother about working in the cotton fields.
On the night of November 2, Aishwarya prepared food for her father when he got home, but he refused to eat. In the evening, her father offered to buy her snacks from outside, which she also refused.
“Our pet Labrador had just been served food minutes before he decided to end his life. She was eating, otherwise she surely would have stormed into her room feeling like she was trying to kill herself. Even when there is an argument at home, she barks and makes sure peace prevails, ”says Srinivas Reddy, even now believing that the pet could have saved her from taking her own life.
In her death note, Aishwarya stated how she believed that she and her upbringing had become a ‘drag’ on her family. He also mentioned in the note, ‘death is the right thing to do for me’ and ‘I can’t live without education’.
“Our daughter is gone, and the one who is gone is gone. Just because we are from the upper caste, not everyone from the upper caste is financially well off. No one else should lose a life like my daughter. I ask the government to remove all reservations and treat everyone fairly. Just support the poor regardless of caste, ”said Srinivas Reddy.
.
