26-Apr-2014
A. Selvaraj
CHENNAI: A mentally-ill woman with fear psychosis, who was rescued from Poonamallee 10 days ago, was reunited with her family on Thursday.
“It took a while to gain her confidence and get her to talk to us. She refused food and medicines. Our counsellors talked to her and got details about her residence,” said Udhavum Karangal founder-director S Vidyakar.
“The woman said the names Kavitha and Meena. She also mentioned Balaji Nagar. So we made enquiries,” Vidyakar said. They started at local police stations to check if any missing person complaints had been lodged. Then, the volunteers went in search of Balaji Nagar and found four of them in the area — in Kundrathur, Porur, Iyyappan Thangal and Poonamallee.
They showed the woman’s picture to autorickshaw drivers and the shop keepers. “An autodriver near Iyyappan Thangal said he’d seen her in the locality and directed them to a street. We found that the woman’s name was Kavitha and her husband Mohan is an alcoholic. They have two children,” Vidyakar said. Kavitha’s sister Manjula came to the NGO and took her sister home.
THE DISPATCH...On Mental Health 