On 11th August, this 28 year old mother of 3, was brutally beaten up, had petrol sprinkled on her and burnt by her husband, a man she had fallen in love with and married, in a village near Uttarkashi, a small town deep in the Garhwal Himalayas.

She had borne 9 years of physically abusive marriage, simply because she had nowhere to go. Her father was a poor farmer, growing enough food in his small farm just to be able to feed his own family. When her father and uncle brought a burnt Vineeta to Dehradun, after an 8 hour taxi journey, they had merely Rs 8000/- in their pocket.

Vineeta had 65% burns, needed to be an in intensive burns ward but shockingly, the entire state of Uttarakhand, does not have a single government hospital providing this facility. The only private hospital in Dehradun with a burns ICU, charges Rs 10,000 per day, which was way beyond which even we could provide for. She would have needed atleast one month of ICU stay followed by few months of hospital stay.

So Vineeta ended up being admitted in a burns ward, where patients with even 40% burns should not be admitted, but we had no choice. There was no way we could have raised Rs 5,00,000/- required for her treatment. Sadly, but as expected, Vineeta passed away after struggling for her life after 10 days. Even in the ward, we had to spend around Rs 2,000 daily, which thankfully because of good people in this world, we did manage to raise.

Vineeta's children are now with their grandmother, the husband is absconding and her parents are back tending to their fields.

May Vineeta's soul rest in peace.