Bureaucracy pushing me to suicide, Palghar student tells education minister

MUMBAI: A 22-year-old student of a pharmacy college in Palghar has written to state education minister Vinod Tawde, to “permit” her to end her life (called “ichchamaran”)

MUMBAI: A 22-year-old student of a pharmacy college in Palghar has written to state education minister Vinod Tawde, to “permit” her to end her life (called “ichchamaran”) as she is tired of the red-tapism in the education sector. Owing to loopholes in the system, she has not been able to pursue further studies and hence has sought the nod from Tawde to end her life, according to sources.

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College authorities have said the girl had not submitted her caste validity certificate (CVC) in time, according to the rules.

Jahara Magdum Shaikh, who is a degree student of the St John Institute of Pharmacy and Research, Palghar, was not allowed to pursue further studies from the mid-term of her third year in November 2013, as she had not submitted her caste validity certificate in time. “My father, Magdum, who works as a driver in a transport firm in Boisar, had somehow managed to pay my tuition fees of nearly Rs1.5 lakh,” said Jahara. “One day, my college principal told me that she will not allow me to continue studies in her college,” added Jahara, speaking from her Boisar home. I completed my first and second year with first class, she said.

“My father made several trips to Konkan Bhavan (from where such certificates are issued) and finally got the CVC, and when I submitted it my college, the principal said it was too late and I will have to start my course all over again,” said Jahara. “I tried to convince her, but she was adamant, and thus since November 2013 I am sitting at home.

“I am saddened with the present education system I and thus have decided to end my life and have pleaded with the minister to permit me to end my life,” said Jahara.