Surat: Had Devki (name changed), a schizophrenic woman from Maharashtra’s Akola district, who was abandoned by her marital kin in Rajashthan’s Alwar district, not been helped by an NGO in Kolkata, she would have ended up as another drop lost in the ocean of lost people. She had accidentally landed up in Kolkata in 2016.
But providence helped and the woman has not only recovered, but is today poised to reunite with her kin in Akola almost 15 years later, thanks to Gujarat police chief Ashish Bhatia, who traced out the 30-year-old woman’s antecedents to her native of Basmath.
Despite many an attempt to trace her kin for three long years, Iswar Sankalp, the Kolkata NGO, was unable to do so till they reached Bhatia. Volunteers of Friends for Women and Children (FFWC), an initiative of CID Crime Women Cell in Surat contacted the NGO and then got to know about Devki. With Bhatia’s intervention and along with the prompt action by Maharashtra police, her story finally reached a happy ending.
Tapan Prodhan, reintegration coordinator of Iswar Sankalp said, “The intervention by Gujarat DGP and swift actions by Maharashtra police helped locate the woman’s family in just 72 hours!”
Devki from Maharashtra’s Basmath village had been married off around 15 years ago in Peepli in Alwar district of Rajasthan but was abandoned a few years ago. Maharashtra police will take her brother Gangadhar from Basmath of Hingoli district to bring home his sister as their parents died a few months ago.
“Few years ago she was abandoned and maybe she boarded a train that brought her to Kolkata. We found her on the road in 2016 and brought her to our shelter home,” said Prodhan, adding that she was treated successfully and could later describe her background too.
The NGO also found an Aadhaar card from her with the address of Peepli. When they checked on the address, the family refused to identify her. “I was informed that the woman needs help hence I sought help from Maharashtra police. They traced the woman’s relatives soon,” Bhatia told TOI.
“Iswar Sankalp officials were unable to locate her family and sought our help. Hence, we tried various methods and also approached the DGP office. Due to direct intervention of DGP police in Maharashtra took quick actions and traced her family,” said Piyush Shah, coordinator of FFWC.