Mercy Killing

“Mercy Killing!”

It was around 7 PM when a call was received by me from my home. It was my wife, a trace of stress in her voice, “Parwati’s husband had come home twice this evening trying to find her  whereabouts. Should I go to their place and check?” Said she.

Oh, how clumsy of me! In the hurry of telling my tale, I forgot to introduce the characters to the readers. Parwati is our maid for the past 10-11 years, more of a family now. Her husband, Prasad, is good for nothing. He has a physical deformity in one of his legs but that does not hamper him doing a painter’s job in the buildings under construction. What hampers is his irresponsible attitude to the work and family. And his huge weakness for the alcohol. He  works for around 30-45 days in a year and wasting away the rest of the days in the company of ‘angoor ki beti’. Suspecting his wife, abusing and beating her are his other hobbies. Parwati, on the other hand happens to be a self-respecting woman of 45 or so who not only manages the family financially but is also paying monthly installments for a small house.

Back to that evening’s incident. I advised my wife to go and look for  Parwati. I reached home from my office at around  9. 00 PM and was told that all was well. At least that day! By the time my wife had reached their place, Parwati had come back. And the other inside information was that Prasad had started his drinking bout that day early morning at 6.00 AM and beat her up mercilessly. And through out the day such things kept repeating. Disgusted, Parwati had left the house and had gone towards railway station. She also confided in my wife that for a moment she was tempted to jump in front of a running train. The sanity prevailed after she thought of her son and she returned home.
Normally I would not interfere as far as ladies, my wife and Parwati, were concerned. However, it was a serious matter and, hence, I confronted Parwati the next day. She listened with concentration. I told her that life is important and she must not succumb to the suicidal thoughts. That there may be other ways to solve this problem. I was taken aback when she asked me point blank, “Then please tell me what are the alternatives?” I was stumped and lost my bearings for a second but carried on nevertheless. Upon this I learnt that Prasad was not welcome at any of the relative’s places including his brothers.  He would never leave Parwati (where else he would get free alcohol in addition to marital pleasures?). “He would come back to me like a dog.”, she mused. “And if I throw him out he would come here in front of this house and say many filthy things.” She added. When I suggested the help of the police , she quipped, “And what will the police do? Lock him up for a day or so and then leave with a sermon? Would that change anything? He is beyond anything as it is. And for police also what’s so big about it? It happens in every second house at our level.”

It was her last remark which inspired me to bring this subject to the readers. It dawned on me that there indeed is no solution to her problems. Unless, of course, the death of Prasad! I had the audacity to express this thought to her and, to my surprise, she agreed without any protest that the death of her husband would be the end of her problems!

So the solution of Parwati and her children lie in the death of the ‘head of the family’! And how long would it take? 2 years, 5 years, 10-20 years, no body knows! Till then she has to endure all the sufferings. After that whatever number of years are left with her, she can breathe easier. That is if there is no untoward incidence in between. Like she committing suicide or poisoning him. (If the older readers recollect, there was a good Hindi movie made by Bimal Roy , “Bandini” where Nutan, in a fit of depression, poisons the lady harassing her). But, if Parwati poisons her husband, our society would clamour for punishing her!

But if nothing can be done by anyone, including Prasad, what about the same society?  Does it have a right to be a mere spectator while such atrocities are being committed?

We debate about ‘mercy-killing’. But it is for those who suffer from incurable diseases. Is being alcoholic not a disease? Is not being insensitive even cruel towards ones family and being a parasite at the same time not a disease? Why can’t the society think of a mercy killing here to end the miseries of the family members? Here the ‘mercy’ would not be on the person suffering but on the remaining frustrated members of the family!  

And such Prasads would be thriving in our society albeit with different qualifications and backgrounds. Essentially, death would be the solution for those cases as well.

I remember an article in Readers Digest some years back describing the plight of a government doctor required to inject a newborn to sleep him to death because the child was over and above the authorization! Their way of family planning! However, let us be practical. We are a society where there was a prolonged irritating debate whether a child-rapist-killer should be hanged or not. It is very difficult to believe that our society would subject these good-for-nothing guys for mercy killing. Then why can’t the government take up the responsibility of these persons? May be to take them in custody and make them do some hard manual work (as is done in the prisons). At least, we can have some out put from them, the family would be better off and their drinking would be controlled.

It is time society did something about it. It is also the time to take a count. Those for ‘mercy killing’ or ‘mercy custody’ to please raise their hands.

***