BHUBANESWAR: A Chennai-based NGO Udavum Karangal helped a woman of Odisha to reunite with her family at Baghara village in Nayagarh district after three years. In February, 2017, a person had noticed the woman wandering on Thatchur road at Tiruvannamalai town of Tamil Nadu. He informed the Inspector of All Women Police Station there and a few days later, she was rescued by police and sent to Udavum Karangal, an NGO based at T Nagar in Chennai.
Initially, the woman was not able to share any information about herself or her family but she revealed her name as Reshmi after receiving treatment and counselling at the organisation. She later informed the counsellors that she had eloped with a person of her village to Agra where she married him. She had also given birth to a child. However, they were not able to eke out a living and her husband got addicted to alcohol. He started harassing Reshmi and this left her traumatised. He also asked her to leave with her child. Harassed, she later boarded a train with her child without knowing its final destination.
Someone reportedly stole her child in the train before she reached Tamil Nadu. After recovering completely, the woman requested the NGO officials to send her back to Nayagarh. The social workers of Udavum Karangal - Srinivasa Rao and Chandrika - along with Reshmi reached her village on Monday. Even as the woman’s brother was not willing to accept her, the NGO officials counselled him and he agreed to take care of her.