Subramani worked every day for the last 15 years, cleaning the streets of Bengaluru. But for the last 6 months, he wasn’t paid a single rupee by the BBMP. On Sunday, after months of hunger and thirst, poverty and humiliation, Subramani decided to take his own life.
After going to work every single day - cleaning the streets of Bengaluru - but because his salary had been withheld for the last 6 months, a Dalit Civic Worker committed suicide on Monday.
Subramani, aged 40, used to work in Ward Number 77, the Dattatreya Temple Ward, as a cleaner. He was brought to KC General Hospital by his wife Savita. However, doctors declared him as brought dead.
Sources said that in a note written before he died, Subramani had said that he didn’t have money to pay for food and other essentials for his family. He had asked the BBMP to release his payment for the last 6 months. He is survived by his wife and two young children - one of whom is 10 years old and the other, 7. He had to pull them out of school in June, as he could not pay their fees.
"He had not been paid his salary for the last six months, and he was in deep financial trouble. His wife has filed a complaint saying this was the reason he committed suicide. We are investigating the incident from all possible angles," said Sudhakar KH, a police officer at Vyalikaval Police Station.
Meanwhile, Nirmala, a BBMP workers’ union leader from Goraguntepalya, said that Subramani should have been paid by the BBMP since January, and called for BBMP officials to be arrested in connection with this incident.