New Delhi: A 20-year-old mentally challenged woman from Assam who had reached Noida in 2019 has been reunited with her family with help from the Uttar Pradesh Police, officials said on Wednesday.
The woman arrived in Noida on October 19, 2019, after which her case reached the local authorities, who got her admitted to a government-run shelter home after due procedures, they said.
"The woman hails from Udalgiri district of Assam. She had been at the shelter home in Noida's Sector 34 since 2019. Recently, after several rounds of counseling, the woman was able to recall her mother's name and a phone number which helped us contact her family," Vinod Panwar, in charge of the Noida Police's Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), told PTI.
According to the official, the woman was in Assam when she got married to a local man against the wishes of her financially weak family. However, soon their relationship turned sour, leaving the woman in a situation where she was abandoned by her husband and she could also not go back to her family.
"In a situation of dilemma, she appeared to have reached the National Capital Region (NCR) and then Noida. She appeared very young and facing mental health issues when local authorities checked on her. Eventually, her condition turned better over time, and she was able to tell us the name of her mother along with a phone number," Panwar said.
He said the AHTU has been able to re-unite over two dozen such people sheltered in government facilities here with their families since 2021.
"Our effort has been to reach out to the people with sensitivity. There have been several occasions when our counselors talk to them but do not get any substantial information despite several meetings," Panwar said.
"However, the instructions to the counselors, including women officials, are clear: be polite, kind, and sensitive with the inmates, and the efforts are showing results," he said.
The official said the mother of the Assamese woman reached Noida and the mother-daughter duo left for home on a train on Tuesday evening.