A mentally ill woman from Uttar Pradesh was reunited with her family after several years in the temple town of Bhadrachalam on Friday.
The elderly woman, who had gone missing from her home in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district around two decades ago due to suspected mental health disorder, was found wandering on the streets of Bhadrachalam by some local residents nearly one-and-a-half year ago.
Alerted by them, the Khammam-based Annam Seva Foundation chairman and para-legal volunteer Annam Srinivasa Rao shifted her to the shelter home for destitute persons in Khammam in December 2019.
The volunteers led by Mr. Rao with the help of local police traced the address of the woman and established contact with her son Dinesh, a labourer from Banda, after consistent efforts. Dinesh, who is now 30 years old, recognised his mother during their conversation over a video call arranged by the volunteers.
He soon rushed to Khammam from UP and met his mother, who left their home when he was 10 years old. Dinesh broke down on seeing his mother and narrated the ordeal suffered by their family following the death of his father in 2013 and separation from his mother since childhood.
The woman was reunited with her son in the presence of Bhadrachalam Assistant Superintendent of Police Dr. G Vineeth in the temple town late on Friday afternoon.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Srinivas Rao said he arranged the reunion of the elderly woman with her son in the temple town from where the woman was rescued in 2019.
We have made arrangements for their travel by train to Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, he said with a sense of contentment.