The injured girl being treated at a hospital in Berhampur, where she passed away on Wednesday. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, June 26: A 12-year-old girl Jayanti committed suicide by setting herself on fire as her poor parents could not buy her a notebook and a pencil at Aska on Wednesday evening.

Jayanti was promoted to Class VII at the Government Girls’ High School, Aska, and wanted to pursue her studies.

Her mother is a domestic help, while her father suffers from partial paralysis. She took the extreme step when her mother failed to give her Rs 10 to buy a notebook and a pencil.

Questions are being raised about the efficacy of various schemes being run by the state government and voluntary organisations to encourage girl students to pursue studies.

Indrabati Mishra, headmistress of the high School, said that Jayanti had been provided textbooks. “But there is no provision to supply pencil and notebooks to students,” she said.

A retired sub-inspector of schools, Kailash chandra Padhi, said that under the Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan free textbooks were provided. “There are many meritorious students who are poor. There is a need for the government to provide financial support at least to buy pencils, notebooks and other study materials so that they could perform better.”

Jayanti's class teacher, Banishri Panda said: “She was irregular in attending the classes, but was a bright student.”

Jayanti could not afford to be regular at the school because her 30-year-old mother Eswari Nayak works as a domestic help to run the family. Her father Bijayananda, 45, of Jokabandha Sahi in Aska, used to assist carpenters. But partial paralysis has left him unemployable.

With their four children — two daughters and two sons — the couple lives in a rented house.

“Jayanti asked me to give Rs 10. I had no money and asked her to wait till the evening. I had planned to borrow money from the house where I am working. Jayanti agreed, but said that she would not go to the school without the pencil and the notebook. So, I asked her to serve some food to my son Ujjwal, who was ready to go to the school,” Eswari said.

After Eswari and her husband left the house, Jayanti asked her brother to leave for the school and the other sibling to go out and play. The she closed the door, went to the backyard and poured kerosene on her body before setting herself on fire.

When neighbours spotted smoke coming from the house, they rescued Jayanti and shifted her to a local hospital and later to the MKCG hospital.

“She had suffered 60 per cent burns and breathed her last on Wednesday evening,” hospital sources said.

“Jayanti was very sensitive. When my husband suffered from paralysis and I decided to work as a maid in some houses, she used to comfort me. She told me not to worry and used to take care of household chores so that I could go out and earn. She used to do everything along with her studies,” an inconsolable Eswari said.