Traders help Nagaland mom get back son mortgaged for husband’s last rites
A young mother of three travelled all the way from Nagaland’s Dimapur to Agra with her children to earn ₹2,000 — the sum she needed to free her son from a moneylender who had kept her older son as “mortgage” for a loan for her husband’s funeral.
Rita didn’t land a job in the Uttar Pradesh city, but found herself in a situation that forced her to sleep rough with her threeyear-old younger son and daughter, a toddler of two. She rummaged through garbage for discarded food and drank water from public taps, and even drains, to quench her thirst in the searing May heat.
Social activist Naresh Paras has seen many poor, homeless people and even he found the woman’s behaviour strange when he saw her drinking water from a filthy drain and feeding spoilt food to the children at the Shah market on Saturday.
He approached her but couldn’t understand a word as she barely spoke Hindi or any language other than her mother tongue. A helpless Paras contacted police and the Lucknowbased charity, Asha Jyoti Kendra, which assigned a local counselor to communicate with her. .
She told her well-wishers that she travelled nearly 2,000km to Agra with her brother-in-law for a job but he left her to fend for herself and the young kids soon after reaching the city.
Rita lost her husband about seven months ago and borrowed ₹2,000 for his last rites from a moneylender in Dimapur.
The loan shark kept her son, seven-year-old Sonu, as a “security deposit” and got her a job in a tea garden to help her pay back the dues. But with a meagre salary of ₹40 a day, she knew she would never be able to secure her son’s release.
The desperate and broken mother got Sonu’s name tattooed on her hand as the moneylender wouldn’t allow her to meet him.
Rita discussed her situation with brother-in-law Pappu, who promised to find her a job. “She then left for Agra with her other two kids,” Paras said.
The social activist contacted a senior police officer in Kohima, the Nagaland capital, and narrated Rita’s story.
“He assigned sub-inspector A Singla in Dimapur to look into the matter. Singla called me and promised help once Rita is back in her hometown.” This Mother’s Day, she boarded the Brahmaputra Express from Tundla junction.
The shopkeepers at the Shah market pooled and gave her Rs 3,500, which included the money she owed to the moneylender. Paras and his associates bought her train ticket.