‘Neglected’ Woman Takes Refuge in Garbage Pile Near Tiruchy Hospital

TIRUCHY : A woman, suspected to be mentally challenged, has drawn  the attention of passers-by as she has been staying amid a pile of garbage opposite the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital (MGMGH) along EVR road for the past five days.

Local residents and traders say that some people are intentionally leaving aged people  near the GH to die assuming that the GH would take steps to dispose the bodies after their death.

According to local traders, they saw a feeble woman 5 days back, when they lifted their shutters near EVR Road. They suspected that some people could have brought and dropped her near the MGMGH, since they had already witnessed such instances in the past.

“I was shocked to see, when I opened my shop that a feeble woman was occupying a dirty place where the garbage from shops would be dumped. It appears that she has been spending sleepless nights as a lot of stray animals are in the vicinity. She has barely enough to cover herself up,” Saravanan, who runs homeopathic medical shop in the area, said.

It is learnt that the woman doesn’t speak. “On seeing her condition, I bought a meal for her, but she just stared at me,” says K Ganesh, another shopkeeper near MGMGH. Ganesh is apprehensive that her health condition is worsening and she might die if the same situation continued.

“Appeals to several NGOs to rescue her from her plight have gone begging. I called up an NGO two days back and explained the situation after which they said that they would come for rescue soon. But, none came so far,” Saravanan said, adding that he had dialled ‘100’ five times in the last two years to intimate three death cases, which happened near MGMGH.

GH police officials admit that this kind of cases is on the rise. “Aged people, particularly from other districts, are being brought here and abandoned near the GH,” a police official told Express, adding that there were four death cases this year. The police officials would take the bodies to the mortuary and would wait for claimants, after which bodies would be cremated, the official explained.

Attempt to contact District Social Welfare officer M Usha was unsuccessful.