Woman from Kolar reunited with family after nine years

Having endured an alcoholic husband and the resultant troubled marriage, Vijaya had run away from her home, leaving behind even her two children, about nine years ago. She was mentally disturbed by then.

“She was rescued by the members of a home called Little Hearts in Salem, which works among the mentally ill and disabled. There, she lived for a year before being shifted to their branch in East Coast Road,” said Ratheesh K Ram, a social worker from the Banyan, a city-based NGO.

Despite running away from home, Vijaya’s desperation to return home, to her children, even after all these years was evident to the social workers. “When a few of us from Banyan visited her on Friday, we realised how desperate she was. After speaking to her, we immediately got in touch with police personnel in KGF, Kolar, who went to her house and helped us trace the family,” he said. Even though details about Vijaya was shared with the Tamil Nadu State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) and with all police stations here, there allegedly was little help forthcoming to help trace her family.

Learning that Vijaya was alive, her family left for Chennai on Friday night itself and arrived in the city on Saturday morning. “She was able to return to her family in Kolar, where her brothers are taking care of both her sons since the death of their father a few years ago,” he added.