It was a dream-come-true for 38-year-old Kavitha, an inmate of the Shelter For Women With Psycho Social Needs, run by Hope Public Charitable Trust under the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).
She was able to sing on the Mouna Raagam stage on January 17 in front of S.P. Charan.
Subsequently, based on her condition and with the information provided by her, she was reintegrated with her family recently.
“Ms. Kavitha was rescued by the GCC's Shelter for Urban Homeless Cell team members in September 2020. She was disturbed following the death of her husband,” said M. Nandini, project co-ordinator at the NGO.
She was displaying aggressive behaviour initially and she improved a lot with medication and counselling.
“We found that she was good at singing and made her sing in our home. Later, she was given an opportunity to sing at the S.P. Charan Live in Concert programme organised in the city on January 17,” she added.
Memorable rendition
Mouna Ragam Murali, who runs the music troupe, said that she sang Edhedho Ennam Valarthen from the Tamil film Punnagai Mannan.
“She forgot her problems and sang in front of Mr. Charan. She did not even rehearse. We have been giving opportunity to talented persons from the differently abled community regularly,” he said.
Asha Parekh Nandini, city-level coordinator, SUHC, said that they had been identifying talent among their inmates.
“We noticed that her condition had improved and after getting details from her about her family in Puducherry, we reintegrated her,” she added.