Social media and a group of good samaritans bring back a mentally challenged person from Kolkatta to Tirupur
Tirupur: Time and again discussions on the power of social media have been happening across all platforms. The story of a mentally challenged person from Tirupur who got lost before 2 years and his journey back home from Kolkata to Tirupur which was made possible by social media and the humanity of few good samaritans, is nothing short of a movie script.
At a time when the whole country is witnessing a huge migrant worker transport crisis, Duraisamy was lucky enough to travel 2,126 km back home only because of the efforts of a few good people who went out of their way to help this man.
The story started when J. Mercy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Airport Division, Biddhanagar, Kolkatta who got a call from New town police station about a stranded man speaking a south Indian language. Duraisamy, the man found by New town police personnel spoke to the Deputy Commissioner over the phone and she understood that he spoke Tamil and he is from Tirupur.
The police officer described how the whole story unwinded. "It was on 16th when I received a call from New Town police station about a person who spoke in a language that they didn't understand. When I spoke to him over the phone I understood that he is from Tirupur. The next day I went to the police station and after an inquiry found that he could say his name and his address but he could not say how he landed at Kolkatta. I took a video and I informed my husband who spread the message through social media.
With the help of people from Erode who got in touch with few social activists in Tirupur, we could locate his family but we couldn't send him back because of his health. We also had to keep him in the police station because of the imminent cyclone Amphan. And after a mammoth effort, he was sent back to Tirupur by a bus and now he is safe in his hometown," narrated Mercy in a simple tone.
But the efforts that had gone into bringing back Duraisamy was far from Simple. Suresh Kumar, Mercy's husband gave a few more details. "I had few friends through a platform called ‘Karuthu Pattarai’. So I posted the video shot by my wife in the Whatsapp group and also sent it personally to Erode Kathir, a writer and a social activist. He immediately sent it to his contacts in Tirupur, that's when Kumar Duraisamy came into the picture.
He located Duraisamy's address and found his family. But the family did not have financial resources to come to Kolkata nor we could send him to Tirupur alone or even with strangers. Meanwhile, because of the cyclone, Kolkata was totally devasted which made things worse. It was already 4 days since we found him and located his family but things did not move further. That was when Manivannan who saw this video stepped in and things started moving fast and we could manage to send him back," said Suresh Kumar.
Manivannan Ramasamy, a mechanical engineer working with a multinational corporation got the video and he wanted to do something about this because of his connection with Tirupur. "I was working in Tirupur for nearly 13 years and after knowing the story I felt that I had to do something. I came to know about Kumar Duraisamy and Erode Kathir through the Deputy Commissioner. So we formed a Whatsapp group "Mission Duraisamy rescue" and we tried to find some transport to get him back to Tirupur.
We are part of an NGO Vidhaigal, which we started before few years ago to do social activities. I contacted our team and Rathinamoorthy, one of our volunteers found a bus that was coming from Tirupur to drop migrant workers to a place which was about 150 kilometers away from Kolkatta. I coordinated with the bus drivers, kept talking to them throughout their journey and we handed over Duraisamy to them on 26th morning and after two days' journey he reached Tirupur on the 28th morning," described Manivannan.
"Everybody in the team worked hard to get this done. Deputy commissioner was very kind and she did everything in her power to help Duraisamy. Without her help, it wouldn't have been made possible at all. Rajesh and Parameswari, a couple, my friends who helped in cooking food for the drivers around midnight because there were no shops due to lockdown. Nobody knew Duraisamy but only due to the humanitarian concern everyone supported this," added Manivannan.
Kumar Duraisamy of the Corona warriors team in Tirupur played a major role in finding Duraisamy's relatives. "I got the video from a friend in Erode who requested help to locate his family. Within one hour our volunteers found his family members at Sirupuluvapatty near Tirupur. The issue was Duraisamy's wife had left him before two years because he was mentally challenged and he only had his sister's family. They were also not in a position to go to Kolkata to bring him even if offered financial help.
Duraisamy on the other hand was sick and looking at his condition, Mercy madam, her husband Suresh and Manivannan all of them wanted to bring him back as early as possible. Our district Collector Vijayakarthikeyan also helped us in getting permission and clearance to bring him back by bus.
He finally reached Tirupur on May 28th early morning after a Himalayan effort by the whole team. COVID-19 test was taken and Duraisamy was declared Covid Negative but since he has diabetes, He will be in Tirupur for few days after which he will be handed over to his relatives. Since they are not in a position to accommodate him permanently, with our collector's help we have identified two homes where he could be lodged and taken care of," Kumar Duraisamy narrated the story.
"Social media is so powerful and when its put to right use, it can help people in unimaginable ways. Duraisamy's story is an example of that," added Kumar Duraisamy.