HUBLI: They knew that she wanted to come home desperately but it was only after she died that they understood why. Speaking to The Hindu over phone from Kollegal, T. Jayamma, elder sister of T. Prema, headmistress of the government primary school in Venkatapur village in Gadag district, who committed suicide recently, said they did not know about the problems Prema was facing at her workplace.

"Whenever she said she wanted to quit, we would ask her to think of her children's future," Ms. Jayamma said.

Prema set herself on fire in front of the house of Girish Bavimani, president of the School Development Management Committee, in protest against what she had alleged was persistent harassment by him. A native of Kollegal in Chamrajnagar district, T. Prema, a Dalit, was a woman of courage. She had only studied up to the 9th standard before marriage. She continued her studies after her husband committed suicide. While her mother took the responsibility of looking after her two grandchildren, she passed the SSLC and PU examinations and then the teachers training course.

As Prema told Basavaraj S. Horatti, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, even as she lay dying in hospital, the harassment by the accused had intensified day by day after she refused to act as per his "directions". While the accused is behind bars now, the issue before Prema's family is the future of her two children Abhishek and Ashwini, who have now completed their 9th standard.

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