Dhaka: A 40-year-old woman in the Marathwada region of Western India was forced to commit suicide as she was unable to feed her five children.

The tragic incident shows the plight of drought-hit farmers and their families in Maharashtra, reports Zee News.

A Zee News report on Monday said Manisha Gatkal, a farmer in Marathwada’s Osmanabad district, set herself on fire in her own house on Saturday — the day India was celebrating Raksha Bandhan, a Hindu ritual to celebrate the relationship of brothers and sisters.

An Indian news channel quoted Lakshman, ‘We are really very poor. There was no food. I had no work. When I got some work I went out. She latched the door and killed herself. Gatkal’s husband Lakshman was quoted as saying by a news channel.

Days after the tragic death, the residence of Lakshman Gatkal, Manisha’s husband, in Ambi village, continues to suffer from lack of grain or food items. With nothing to eat, her children can only stare at the empty vessels around.

One of their relatives said, ‘Ration is just too little – 18kilograms of wheat and 12kilograms of rice. That’s not enough for seven people. Just lasts 12 days.’

Moreover, the villagers have no work even under the central government employment schemes, which guarantee them jobs.

Marathwada region of Maharashtra has been severely hit by three years of continuous droughts. This has resulted in an alarming rise of farmer suicides, reports Zee News.

The Zee News report says, in 2014, the region witnessed the death of 574 farmer suicides, while more than 628 farmers have already killed themselves this year.