A 77-year-old woman and her two daughters, one of them mentally ill, living in a dilapidated house at Mullassery Lane, near YMR Junction, Nanthencode, need no longer live a life of neglect.
The ramshackle house in which Subhashini and her two daughters Usha, 53, and Sheela, 48, were living had suffered further damage in last year’s heavy rain. The roof leaked and the electricity connection got snapped. Sheela is mentally unstable and Ashokan, her husband, would come daily and buy the three women food. On other times, neighbours such as Kudumbashree member Suryakala would feed the family.
On Wednesday, District Social Justice Officer L. Sabeena Beegum reached the house on directions from the office of the Minister for Social Justice K.K. Shylaja. Ms. Beegum, while conversing with the women, did not find Usha very lucid either. The team tracked Ashokan who said he was finding it difficult to take care of them. With the support of local people and the police, Ms. Beegum got the women to enter a vehicle and reach the Mental Health Centre, Peroorkada. There, Sheela was admitted to ward 14, while it was decided that in Usha’s case, medicines would suffice. Usha and Subhashini were then taken to a home for the infirm at Kattela where they could stay together.
Repair works
Corporation Town Planning standing committee chairperson Palayam Rajan said the YWCA had agreed to fund the maintenance of the house. The works would begin on Monday. Students of a civil service academy at Nanthencode had written to Ms. Shylaja about the family’s plight.
