New Delhi: Anjali Gopnarayan, aged 26, ended her life exactly a week ago at her rented accommodation in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar. An aspiring civil servant, she failed to crack the Prelims, and was upset over her landlord’s decision to increase the rent by Rs 3,000.
The daughter of an assistant sub-inspector in Maharashtra’s Akola District, she had come to Delhi on a government scholarship to continue her preparation for the civil services entrance exam.
But, life took a different turn after the term of her scholarship ended.
On Sunday, Anjali’s uncle joined UPSC aspirants who sat in protest near Karol Bagh metro station to demand accountability for the deaths of three aspirants due to drowning in a flooded basement of a coaching centre.
“It was my birthday when I received the call that Anjali had died by suicide. Our lives stopped after that. No one extends support or help to students who leave their homes and come to big cities. Bitterness and exam pressure becomes too much for them,” her uncle Amar Patode told ThePrint.
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‘Not just exam prep, but also survival’
In a suicide note she left behind, Anjali wrote that a number of factors drove her to the extreme step, including the pressure of living alone in a strange city. ThePrint has seen a copy of the note.
“I tried every possible way to get rid of this so-called depression but can’t overcome it; went to the doctor, but my mental health is still not improving. PG and hostel rent should also be decreased, these people are just looting money from students and not everyone can afford it. It’s becoming very hectic for me now to handle life’s problems, thus is it now,” it read.
In the note, the 26-year-old who breathed her last on 21 July also requested her family to donate her organs to those in need.
Those who knew Anjali said the hike in house rent added to her troubles.
“One day before her exam (Prelims) she was told that her rent is being hiked by Rs 3,000 and when she requested the landlord not to do so, he threatened to call the police and made her leave. It took a toll on her mental health,” Vishal Shinde, who said he knew Anjali, told ThePrint.
Amrita, who lived in the same building as Anjali, added, “The new landlord increased the rent and she was very upset about it. From Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000. It got very difficult for her to manage this much stress. When it comes to brokerage and rent increment all of Old Rajinder Nagar becomes so brutal. It’s not just the exam prep but also survival that we worry about.”
The room where Anjali died by suicide is now awaiting a new occupant. Neighbours say every week someone preparing for the civil services comes to see it.
If you are feeling suicidal or depressed, please call a helpline number in your state.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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