Navi Mumbai: Woman 'missing' for 8 years reunited with family

Navi Mumbai: A group of social workers traced a 45-year-old woman's village and helped her reunite with her family after eight years. The woman Jaswinder Kaur, who had been reported missing for over eight years, is from Gurdaspur, Punjab, a Times of India report read.

"In June 2013, Kaur was spotted by the railway police at Mankhurd station. She was then brought to the shelter run by the Social and Evangelical Association for Love (SEAL). Kaur was mentally unstable and seemed to have aimlessly travelled in several trains till finally arriving in Mumbai," said social worker Jaynamma Abraham of SEAL Ashram.

The report further quoted Abraham saying that while Kaur's mental health improved, she could not remember her complete home address or even the name of her village. "One of our Punjabi-speaking volunteers began chatting with her regularly. Her photograph was also clicked and circulated in various social media circles in Punjab," said Abraham.

Over the years, as her husband Gurmel Singh had been trying to look for her, the sarpanch of Bada Hasanpura village in Gurdaspur recognised Kaur from the photo, the report stated.

"I just could not believe that my missing wife has been found after eight years. It feels as if she died and is now reborn," her husband said during a video conference with the SEAL trustees at New Panvel. Last week, Kaur's brother, Jagjit Singh, flew down to take her back to her husband, two sons and a daughter.

SEAL founder, pastor K M Philip, "The story of this lost, homeless woman had a happy ending. However, there are thousands such mentally-ill patients who get lost, sleep on roads and eat whatever they are offered. If their health worsens, they die as ‘unidentified' and homeless. Their worried family never find them, or what happened to them."

He also urged citizens to be alert about such cases and report them to the police.

"Often, the government and private hospitals do not admit such patients, so NGOs like us take up their care and treatment in the hope that some day they will find their families. Jaswinder Kaur's case is the 389th happy reunion here at SEAL," added Philip.

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