Burdwan, July 22: At 10, Shibani had got used to playing mother to her younger siblings, coping with a drunk dad and trying to cure his habit.

But life proved a little too much for the girl of Class V, fighting alone to pull a family from the brink.

After yet another fight with her tottering father last night, she hanged herself at her home in Chhotonilpur, on the outskirts of Burdwan town.

Shibnath Chakraborty earned about Rs 2,000 working in a private firm but blew up most of it in drinks and left little for the family ? reduced to three daughters and himself after his wife’s death ? said a police officer who was among those who brought down Shibani, lifeless.

The sisters went to sleep without having dinner last night. Shibnath, who woke up early this morning ? possibly to go to the toilet ? saw Shibani hanging from the end of a little dupatta in the next room. Her sisters were still asleep, blissfully unaware that they would not have didi to turn to.

The father raised an alarm and called in neighbours, who informed the police.

Shibani ran the family single-handed since her mother died two years ago, said a neighbour, Madhuri Sarkar. “She cooked and attended to all the needs of her two sisters? she was virtually their mother,” said Madhuri.

To ensure two meals for her sisters, between three and five, the little girl often begged for food from neighbours, who sometimes obliged.

Last night, Shibnath beat up his daughters for no apparent reason, said a neighbour.

Madhuri said: “Shibani tried to persuade him to quit drinking and give more money and mind to the family. But he wouldn’t listen?. Almost every night, Shibnath would return home drunk. We used to hear the father and daughter fight.”

Indranil Saha, a psychiatrist at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, said drinking problems were spelling doom in many families across the district.

“We get at least 15 cases in our hospital every day where a family wants a member treated for alcoholism. In Shibani’s case, we feel that the girl had her back to the wall and could not cope with the acute adverse situation any longer,” he said.

Burdwan superintendent of police Peeyush Pandey said her body has been sent for post-mortem. “Preliminary investigations suggest that Shibani committed suicide in sheer frustration of not being able to mend her father’s ways.”

Shibnath refused to speak through the day. He accompanied Shibani’s body to the police station and then to the morgue, where it was kept for the post-mortem.