PALAKKAD: Palakkad native U Radha is a relieved woman. After a long wait spanning three-and-a-half decades — and dotted with hurdles big and small — the 59-year-old can finally identify as an Indian citizen. Palakkad District Collector S Chithra handed over the certificate proclaiming Radha as a citizen of India on Wednesday, 35 years after she applied for it in 1988.
“Radha’s parents, Govindan Nair and Sreedevi Amma, had gone to Malaysia during the pre-Independence period in search of a livelihood. Radha was born in Malaysia in 1964,” K Radhakrishnan of Pudussery, Radha’s husband, told TNIE. Since she was born abroad, Radha did not qualify as an Indian citizen.
Radhakrishnan said, later, Radha and her mother returned to Palakkad, while her father stayed back, he said.
“Barring one year from 1980 to 1981, when Sreedevi Amma took Radha to Malaysia again, she has been living in Palakkad her entire life,” said Radhakrishnan.
At the time, Radha took a Malaysian passport as getting one from India was, understandably, a tedious process. “She returned in 1981. In 1985, we got married. I was employed at the Precot mill in Kanjikode at the time,” said Radhakrishnan. The couple has two children, Gireedharan and Girija.
‘Application was pending in Palakkad, Tvm till 1997’
Since Radha’s passport was valid only till 1986, the couple kept renewing it at the Malaysian Consulate in Chennai every year. However in 1988, the officials there said they could no longer renew the document, Radhakrishnan said.
“When we enquired at the passport office in Kozhikode, they advised us to give a renunciation certificate from the consulate stating we no longer wished to be citizens of Malaysia. We got it. In 1988, Radha applied for Indian citizenship, as she had studied at Pathripala Government HSS. However, the application remained pending at the Palakkad collectorate and in Thiruvananthapuram till 1997. It was later forwarded to New Delhi,” Radhakrishnan recalled.
During the time, they reached out to the Home department multiple times and petitioned every minister, he said.
“There were regular police visits to our house. Verifications followed. The village officer too visited our house for verification, as they needed an ID to establish that ‘Ratha’, the individual in the birth certificate, and ‘Radha’, the one in the school certificate, were the same person. When the application got delayed, we went to New Delhi in 2021 for follow-up,” Radhakrishnan said.
The delay also prevented Radha from getting a proof of identity like the Voter ID card or Aadhaar card. That wait has now ended.