Bengal youth languishing in Chennai home for a year to return home
Kolkata, Aug 11 (IANS) A mentally-challenged youth from West Bengal, who spent nearly a year at a vagrant’s home in Chennai, will be reunited with his family shortly, thanks to the initiative of a retired government employee.
It is unclear how the youth reached Chennai, but he was found loitering in various neighbourhoods of the city.
The police finally took him into custody, suspecting him to be a thief.
At the police station, officials were unable to gather much information from him due to the language barrier.
Even if they had understood the language, what the young man said made little sense.
He was produced before a court, which ordered a medical examination.
Doctors declared him mentally unstable, following which the Court ordered him to be sent to the shelter for the Urban Homeless, a vagrants’ home under the Greater Chennai Municipal Corporation.
He has been languishing there for more than a year now.
Recently, the retired government officials, who requested anonymity, visited Chennai and came to know about the youth’s plight. He decided to visit him with some fruits and other items.
At the shelter, he clicked photographs of the youth and passed them on to the West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC), an organisation of Amateur Radio Operators who use their hobby to reunite such people with their families.
“We tried to communicate with the youth and realised that he is from West Bengal. We then circulated his photographs to all our friends (also HAMs) across the state. We got a result soon,” said Ambarish Nag Biswas, WBRC Secretary.
The youth, identified as Sekabul Sk, is a resident of Sridharpur, in Lalkhandiar of West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. His parents were contacted and they got in touch with the youth through a video call arranged by the authorities in Chennai.
“All arrangements have been made. The parents will be travelling to Chennai soon with all documents to bring back their son. We are happy that we have succeeded to get yet another lost person with his family. We also thank the retired government officials who informed us about Sekabul,” Nag Biswas said.
–IANS
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