Disabled Bhopal woman wants permission for euthanasia

Neither job reservations, nor will power or educational qualifications have helped Laxmi Yadav to become self-reliant. Now, the 35-year-old disabled woman wants permission for euthanasia or mercy killing.

Yadav has completed her Master of Philosophy (M Phil) and Master of Laws (LLM) with a hope to become self-dependent.

But after failing to get a job despite having reservations in three quotas–disabled, women, and other backward class– she has written letters to the Prime Minister, President, chief minister and external affairs minister requesting them to grant her permission for euthanasia.

“The disability never deters me. I was born with polio in both my legs but my parents gave me a normal life,” she says.

“They carried me in the school and college on their laps but they never made me feel that I was a burden to them.”

Yadav completed her MPhil in 2003 and also got a job as a lecturer in a college in Bhopal but after that she was never offered any other job. Whenever she applied, her application was rejected on different grounds.

“In the government sector, I applied for a number of jobs but I was not selected. I also tried to get a job in the private sector but there too I was rejected due of my disability,” she says.

Despite repeated rejections, Yadav did not lose heart until her father suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Yadav, who is the eldest child of her parents, says “I was fighting against all odds but my father illness has increased the problem for our family.”

“Now, I can’t do anything for my family and I also don’t want to increase the burden for my younger brothers so I have requested President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narrendra Modi to allow me to commit suicide,” she says.

After her letters, minister of state for cooperatives Vishwas Sarang has assured that she will be provided a job in a bank.