After having stayed locked inside their Maruti Kunj house for three whole years to escape contracting Covid-19, a womanand her 10-year-old kid, were brought out of confinement by police on Tuesday, February 21. A team of police, health officials and members of the child welfare department had to break open the main door of the house to bring the duo out.
During the three years of isolation with her child, Munmun Majhi did not allow even her husband, Sujan Majhi, into the house after he once stepped out to go to the office when restrictions were partially eased after the first Covid-induced lockdown in 2020. Sujan is an engineer with a private company.
He spent the initial days staying with friends and relatives. However, as a stable solution and after repeated failed attempts to persuade Munmun, he rented a house for himself in the same locality. The only way Majhi stayed connected with his family was through video calls.
In the begining, Sujan tried convincing his wife to allow him inside the house or come out but she did not budge. He then got his in-laws and parents to talk to Munmun but that did not help either.
Her only condition was that she would stay locked until there was a Covid vaccine for kids. Till now, there is no vaccine for children below 12 years – Munmun’s son is 10 now. Though he himself could not contact them directly, Sujan also made sure that no one disturbed his family by dutifully paying the utility bills and taking care of all supplies.
He would pay the monthly rent, electricity bills, deposit his son’s school fees, buy the groceries and vegetables, and even leave the bags of ration outside the main door for them. As per the police, Munmun had cut off contact with most of her relatives over the years but she allowed her son to use the smartphone because he had to attend online classes. Moreover, she had even stopped using cooking gas because it needed replacing the cylinder and switched to an induction heater instead.
After all other efforts failed, Sujan finally approached the police but initially, the cops decided to stay off as it was a family matter and included nothing illegal. It was last week that Sujan met Praveen Kumar, an assistant sub-inspector attached to the Chakkarpur police outpost.
“I admit I did not take the case seriously at first since it involved a family matter. But the man was in distress. He made me talk to his wife and son over a video call. I was a little restless after talking to the child. He was upset that he hadn’t come out in the sun in three years,” Kumar told the Times of India.
The police then got in touch with the health department and a team of cops, health officials, members of the child welfare department and an NGO went outside Munmun’s door on Monday but talks didn’t make much headway and the team had to make hasty return after Munmum threatened to kill her son and die by suicide. The team came back on Tuesday morning and tried to counsel Munmun again.
After nearly two hours, they broke open the door and rescued the mother-son duo. The two were admitted to the Civil Hospital for a health check.
“We assured her that nothing would happen to them, and that we would take care of their health. We also told her that Covid numbers were marginal now,” Kumar said. Sujan was overwhelmed to feel the touch of his son after three years and could not hold back his tears. “I am happy they are out. I have to take care of their health,” he said, before rushing to the hospital.
Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer, said the two were undergoing treatment. A medical team, including psychiatrists, is evaluating them, he added. Additionally, doctors pointed out that anxieties during Covid had led to behavioural changes in a number of people.
