CHENNAI: Life has been uncertain for Jayakumar, a cleaner in a transport company. After completing Class 10, he developed a mental illness after suffering a head injury in a car accident. His marriage lasted for about six months and he left home a month ago after his two sisters were unable to take care of him. He was found in an abandoned state amid a pile of garbage by police on Daulatpur Road at Fatehabad in Haryana.
It was Udavum Karangal, which reached out to him, and accommodated him after his two sisters refused to go all the way to Fatehabad to bring back Jayakumar, who hails from Veerappanchatram in Erode District.
Khush Bhargav, State coordinator of Bharat Vikas Parishad in Fathehabad, recollecting the incident, told Express that after the police alerted him, he could find out that Jayakumar hailed from Tamil Nadu as he was frequently muttering the word ‘Madurai Bypass’. “I informed SC Agarwal of Bharat Vikas Parishad in Chennai who contacted S Vidyakar of Udavum Karangal.”
Vidyakar contacted Jayakumar directly and was able to get his antecedents and details about his two sisters in Namakkal - Jayarani and Chandra. The sisters recognised him and said he was a patient with mental illness, who was ‘unmanageable’ at home. With their father no more and mother missing, the sisters got married and could not help their brother. The sisters expressed their inability to bring him back stating that they had no money to travel to such a far-off place and also none of the family members knew Hindi or English. The sisters said if they brought back Jayakumar, he would behave violently and run away from the house and requested Vidyakar to bring him back from Haryana and treat or rehabilitate him by admitting him to Udavum Karangal in Chennai.
Vidyakar spoke to Apna Ghar Pranami Ashram in Haryana and agreed to receive him for treatment and further care. The assistant sub-inspector of Fatehabad police station later confirmed about the handing over of Jayakumar. Srinivasa Rao, social worker of Udavum Karangal, rushed to Fatehabad and brought Jayakumar to Chennai on Sunday.
“He was admitted to our home at Thiruverkadu and given psychiatric treatment,” said a spokesman of Udavum Karangal. This is a first such rescue mission to a far-off place in the last 37 years for Udavum Karangal. Vidyakar said, “We will take care of him. Hope his sisters will visit one day after he gets better and take him back to live with them.”