#Uttarakhandfloods: Visually impaired girl returns home after 5 years

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE- Several natural disasters occur in India every year such as floods in Chennai, Mumbai and Bengaluru; Latur and Bhuj earthquakes to recent Kerala floods to the latest cyclone Gaja, causing fatalities and destruction in varying degrees in every nook and corner of India.

In June of 2013, devastating floods swept through the state of Uttarakhand destroying anything and everything in its wake. According to official figures put the number of casualties at close to 700 while another 3,866 people are still missing. One of the people who went missing during the floods was 17-year-old Chanchal who was en-routing the Kedarnath pilgrimage along with her parents at the time of the floods.

While her father could not survive the wrath of nature, Chanchal’s mother thought that her partially blind and mentally unstable daughter suffered a similar fate. However, the girl was rescued by NGO Childline in Jammu in 2014 and placed in a shelter home.

 Five years after she was separated from her family, Chanchal was sent back to Aligarh after the NGO traced her family back to relatives who reside in the city’s Lohia Nagar area.

However, Chanchal’s uncle who lives in Aligarh refused to take care of the now 17-year-old girl due to financial constraints. “Following the tragedy, her mother, who was left alone returned to Ghaziabad but did not contact us,” he added.

The girl’s uncle who works as a cobbler said that taking care of her with a scanty income of Rs 250-300 a day is a ‘difficult task’. He has a family of nine members to feed including a 75-year-old father who runs a tea shop. Explaining the situation, he said that it was only after Childline officials agreed to take care of her in case of any problem that he decided to agree to her custody.

This is one of the case which has come out in light but, there would be so many which goes without notices.