Handicraft exhibition: Poverty behind rising number of suicide incidents among Chitrali Women
CHITRAL : Tourists from across the country thronged Chitral to attend a cultural festival organized to promote and keep cultural values of the district alive.
The district administration, district sport officer and Chitral Scouts jointly organized the festival where different stalls were set up including embroidery, handicraft, local art, books and literature providing information about wildlife of the district.
Caravan Vocational School has also set up a separate stall, displaying embroidery and handicraft and different item including decoration pieces made by women getting training at the school.
Talking to this scribe the school’s principal Farida Sultana Faree said that hundreds of poor girls have been learning different skills like sewing, embroidery and beauty parlor courses at the school.
She said that around 60 women were enrolled in the school and learning skills mostly free of cost that would enable them to earn a respectable living for themselves as well as for their families. It should be noted that around 18 persons including 16 woman committed suicide for last six months in Chitral.
A girl and a boy committed suicide in two separate incidents in Chitral last Wednesday.
The first incident happened in Booni area, where 14-year-old girl Tayyeba committed suicide by jumping into Chitral River. Later on her body was recovered from Janali Koch area.
The second incident happened in Barok village of Laspur valley where a 17-year-old boy Muhammad Hussain committed suicide by shooting himself down with a gun. The reasons behind these incidents could not be known but local people say that honor, poverty and domestic violence among others are main factors responsible such incidents.
Farida Sultana lamented over increasing suicide cases mainly involving women in a peaceful district like Chital, and claimed that vicious poverty was behind these incidents, as these women have no job and economic opportunities.
She urged the provincial government and international aid organizations to extend financial assistance and open vocational training centers throughout the district where locals could learn various skills. She said that the government could contain incidents of suicide by enabling youth, including male and females, to support their families.
BBC, while quoting a human rights organization, reported that around 150 women have committed suicide during last six years. The district government has opened a center where women could lodge their complaints against domestic violence. NNI
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