Pune: Wastepicker finds purse, returns it to rightful owner

Ardhra Nair | TNN | Updated: Apr 14, 2020, 06:38 IST

Lakshmi Chavan returns the purse to police at the Shimla Office chowkey on Friday.

PUNE: As a wastepicker associated with the Solid Waste Collection and Handling (SWaCH) Collective, Lakshmi Chavan (40) lives a hand-to-mouth existence.
Whatever money she earns is not enough to feed her family of four. But she did not have any slightest hesitation in returning a purse, containing a few crisp notes, she found on Friday to the rightful owner.
Chavan was returning home with 30kg ration, she had collected for her and two slum dwellers, on her head when she saw the purse falling off a woman driving a two-wheeler. She called out to her, but she did not respond.
Determined that the purse needed to be handed over to its owner, Chavan dropped her ration at her Chavan Juna Topkhana slum in Shivajinagar and asked some people to keep a watch over it. Then she proceeded to the Shimla office police chowky. The officials there called a phone number found inside the purse. The owner turned out to be a policewoman.
Happy at getting back her purse, she asked the officials to reward her with Rs500. "With that money, I bought vegetables and some other daily necessities," she said.
"The day I found the purse, I did not have a single penny with me. With the scrap work closed, there is no daily income, which has really hit us hard," said Chavan.
Even getting ration has become difficult for her these days. Chavan lives with her 17-year-old son. She also takes care of two girls from the neighbourhood who lost their parents in childhood. However, she doesn’t think she has done anything extraordinary. "Taking what is not ours will not bring us anything good. I am sure if the reverse had happened, the policewoman would have helped me too," said Chavan.