Pressurised for marriage, 13-year-old commits suicide in West Bengal

Unable to bear pressure from her parents to get married, a 13-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide by drinking pesticide at Kaliachak in Malda district, police said today.

Firoza Khatun, a class V student and daughter of a poor labourer Akhtar Sheikh, died after drinking pesticide yesterday at Mojampur village.

Her uncle Bhadu Sheikh said Firoza parents had fixed her marriage but she was unwilling to tie the knot.

"She quarrelled with her father yesterday when he pressed her to get married. She was unwilling and drank poison later," Bhadu Sheikh told the police.

Firoza has two sisters and one brother. Her elder sister Sami was married off at the age of 14 last year, sources said.

Many minor girls of her age in the district are forced to drop out of schools to marry as their parents are too poor to feed them, the police said.