Mumbai: As per the recent data put together by the state government, 19 people have ended their lives over a duration of 12 days from October 20 to November 1 allegedly for the cause of the Maratha community’s reservation row, amid the violence in Maharashtra.
The data states that 16 of the people who died by suicide were from Marathwada, which is the centre of the protests, while one person each was from Mumbai, Ahmednagar and Pune, the Times of India (TOI) reported. The report says that 16 of those who died were under the age of 30, one of them was a 17-year-old girl while the rest belonged to the age group of 40-45 years.
Maharashtra has witnessed a total of 185 farmer suicides in Beed district itself in the first ten months of this year. The 19 suicides took place amid the Maratha quota protests as per the report despite activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, the state government and other leaders appealing to the protesters to not end their lives. Jarange-Patil, a 41-year-old farmer who has become a force to reckon with on the issue of Maratha quota, was on a fast-unto-death that he had undertaken to pressurise the government to obtain the reservation for the Maratha community.
The report stated that out of the 19 deaths, most died by hanging, one jumped from a water tank in Beed while two consumed poison.
The Maratha community is seeking reservations in education and jobs. In 2021, the Supreme Court struck down the Maratha quota under the SEBC Act and observed that reservations should not go beyond 50% except under exceptional circumstances.
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