VIRUDHUNAGAR: To 32-year-old M Pandidevi every single day presents a battlefield. On one side are herself, her 14-year-old daughter, and 13-year-old disabled son and on the other a particularly unkind life. According to sources, the Sivakasi resident lost her day-labourer husband when he fell from an under-construction building in May 2019.
To make ends meet, Pandidevi and her mother did odd jobs. However, every time she left for work, anxiety gnawed at her heart, for she had to leave alone and helpless at home her intellectually-challenged and disabled son. She shivers as if in ague when she recalled an incident of rats bitting her boy when he was alone. Faced with such odds, Pandidevi decided to stay at home and look after her son.
Expecting help from government, she petitioned the collector several times seeking a government job. However, nothing came of it. When on Monday, she came to the grievance-redress meeting here to submit a petition to the District Revenue Officer (DRO), she brought her son as well.
“If you can’t give me a job, please allow mercy killing of my son,” she said. The DRO promised her the needful.