Marathwada: Once about to kill self, man now campaigns against suicide

Speaking to The Indian Express, Prahlad said: “I appeal with folded hands to each and every youth, do not commit suicide. Life is very precious and should be lived… Even when we are pursuing the Maratha agitation, ending life is not the way to achieve the objective.”
Prahlad leads a busy life these days. When he is not addressing youths in the taluka, he is busy spending time on the social media trying to reach out to the agitators with his messages urging them not to commit suicide.

Prahlad earns Rs 4,000 a month by working at a Ford car showroom in Ardhapur. He blames an injury in his leg keeping him from prospering financially. “I am neither an illiterate nor mad. I had studied at Lal Bahadur Shashtri Mahavidyalay and done my BA… But while my colleagues, who are fit and healthy, earn Rs 7,000 a month, I have always had to settle for less.”

His anger is not only limited to his income. The flip-flop by successive governments on granting quota to the Marathas in jobs and education also weighs heavily on his mind. “In 2011, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board had announced a recruitment drive. At that point, then government (Congress-NCP) had said Marathas would get reservation. I spent Rs 5,000 to get a Maratha caste certificate for my son Pankaj, who had Industrial Training Institute (ITI) diploma in electrical. By the time he applied, the quota was withdrawn. The decision of the government to provide quota to the community was challenged in court,” said Prahlad.

“It took me three years to repay the Rs 5,000 that I had taken as loan from my relatives and friends… This incident is deeply ingrained in my mind and has hurt me… I always feel that if quota was allowed, my son would have landed a secured job.” At present, Pankaj works as an electrician at a private firm at Ranjangaon MIDC in Pune district. Prahlad younger son Santosh is a student of Class X.

But all said and done, Prahlad still believes suicide is not an answer to any problem one may face in life. “At night, a flower does not know whether it would bloom in a temple or on a grave the next day. Yet, it blooms and lives its full life,” he said.