KOZHIKODE: The Government Mental Health Centre at Kuthiravattam here witnessed an emotional family reunion on Wednesday. A Tamil woman inmate was reunited with her five-year-old daughter and mother after a gap of four months thanks to the intervention by social workers.
The woman, Nirmala, 35, had been undergoing treatment at the hospital after the railway police found her on the railway premises in October last. The police produced her in the Kozhikode Chief Judicial Magistrate Court which sent her to the MHC.
The doctors found her mentally ill and started medication.
"We did not have any details of her then. When she began to speak, she revealed that she had lived in a government women's home in Thiruvananthapuram two years back," said Subhash Mathottam, social worker at MHC. Subhash, along with another social worker Sreepriya, contacted Thiruvananthapuram and came to know that Nirmala is from Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. But there were no relatives in the Rameshawaram address as the family had shifted to Coimbatore since the disappearance of Nirmala four months ago.
According to sources, Nirmala was diagnosed with mental illness four years back and her condition worsened after a child was born to her. The fear of giving birth increased her trauma. She left Rameshawaram after her delivery and was later traced to the government home in Thiruvananthapuram. She was sent back home with relatives but she left home again four months ago.
"She is not completely cured. We found her relatives under Amaranellur police limits near Coimbatore. Her daughter, mother Chandramma and the uncle reached Kozhikode on Wednesday and were thrilled to see Nirmala again," said Subhash. Nirmala was back to her normal self and hugged her daughter tightly. The family returned to Coimbatore on Wednesday night.
