R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, JAN 10
A 31-year-old widow, whose husband committed suicide nearly 8 months ago, was forced to sell her hair to feed her children after she was left neck deep in debt. The plight of the woman was posted on social media by a Good Samaritan and help poured in from all quarters.
The social media post won her financial assistance from philanthropists and also a job.
Prema of Ponnamapet in Salem had spent the last penny she had. With three hungry children, aged five, three and two years, to feed, Prema approached everyone she knew, but neither her neighbours nor her relatives would part with cash on the day considered auspicious.
When she was frantically trying for funds to feed her children, a man passing through her street offered to buy hair to make wigs. Prema immediately chopped off her hair and sold it for Rs.150 before spending Rs. 100 on food for her children. After feeding her children, she went to buy a bottle of insecticide but the shopkeeper sensed something amiss and refused to sell it.
After that she attempted to consume poisonous arali seeds (Nerium oleander), this time, her suicide attempt was stopped by her sister, said the Good Samaritan G. Bala, who had posted the plight of Prema on social media.
Prema narrated her story that she worked in a brick kiln along with her husband Selvam as daily wage earners, before that they had borrowed Rs. 2.5 lakhs for establishing a petty shop on their own, but they were cheated by many people and caught in debt trap.
A week after Prema took the extreme decision to end her life; she got a new lease life after a week through Good Samaritan Bala, who was a designer by profession. Bala’s post went viral on social media, as a result of this, Rs. 1.45 lakhs poured in from light-hearted people, in the same time, the district administration too sanctioned widow pension to her. A local brick kiln owner came forward to give her a job.
Ecstatic over the support received from light-hearted people, Prema promised that she will never think of committing suicide and appealed Bala to remove the social media post.
The Good Samaritan Bala’s own story was the inspiration to Prema. When Bala was in his childhood, the family was trapped in poverty, his mother sold old newspaper for Rs. 4 and bought rice and cooked it. Bala’s mother tried to commit suicide, but she was saved by the relatives, Bala narrated her story to Prema.
