RAMANATHAPURAM
A 22-year-old woman, with her two-year-old daughter and parents, appealed to the Collector to get her relief from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund as her husband ended his life in Dubai about a month ago.
Speaking to reporters, Minipriya said that her husband Kaleeswaran, a fisherman, went to Dubai in search of a job on a contract a year ago as there was mounting debt. The joblessness in the coastal hamlet made him go overseas and work with a fish exports firm. Though he went there with high hopes of earning and settling his debts, it was not so in reality, his wife said.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, things turned from bad to worse, she said and added that unable to come to terms that the family was in dire straits and that he too got stuck abroad, Kaleeswaran, while on the job, allegedly jumped into the sea and died on June 16.
After the body was recovered, post mortem was performed and the last rites were conducted there itself, the woman said and looked for assistance from the government.
M. Karunamoorthy, district secretary CITU fishermen workers union here, said that the State government should consider the plight of the widow and her girl child and offer assistance from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund. The district administration should protect the family as they had no means of survival in the present scenario, he added.
Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State's health helpline 104 and Sneha's suicide prevention helpline- 044-24640050.
