Lesbian couple found dead on railway tracks in Bengal

The police on Friday found bodies of  two teenage girls, suspected to be in a lesbian relationship, on the the railway tracks between Bistipur and Gorna villages in Uttar Dinajpur district.

According to some other reports, Prameela died on her way to Raigunj hospital.

Rama Berman (19) and her niece Prameela Berman (17), were allegedly involved in lesbian relationship, police said.

The deceased were students of of class 12th. The police have not yet found any suicide note and do not rule out foul play in their deaths.
 
A police officer said, “We are yet to trace any suicide note. As per the villagers, the girls were allegedly involved in a physical relationship and they were depressed about the uncertainty of their future.”

According to the relatives of the victims, both Rama and Prameela had been cautioned by the villagers on several occasions about their relationship.

“Initially, we used to pay no attention to their affair, as we thought it was not so unusual for a girl to be a friend of another girl. But, they were so engrossed in each other that they used to draw attention and this did spoil the relations between the two families,” said one of Rama’s family member.

Speaking on the issue, Malobika, co-founder of Sappho, a forum for lesbians in Kolkata, says nowadays more and more women are discovering their sexuality.

“Nowadays women are discovering their sexuality unlike four or five years ago. We think both the victims couldn't bear to live without each other and their emotions would be the same as the one in a committed heterosexual relationship,” said Malobika.

Studies around the world indicate that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. And those who are rejected by their family are up to nine times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.

West Bengal is not far behind too. Since January 2011, there have been at least five reported cases where lesbian couple committed suicide in rural Bengal.