In India, a young mother locked herself in an apartment with her child for three years. She was convinced that the boy would die from Covid-19 as soon as he left the house.
Photos from open sources
A 36-year-old woman from Gurugram closed herself and her son from the outside world when the coronavirus pandemic began.
A woman, probably shocked by the wave of coronavirus infections and Covid-19-related deaths that swept India in 2020, has somehow gotten it into her head that cutting off all contact with the outside world is the only way to protect her son, who at that time time was 7 years.
The woman’s husband was also forced to stay at home with them all the time, but when he began to go to work after the end of quarantine, his wife forbade him to return. Tired of being literally kicked out of his family, last week he finally turned to the police for help.
Sujan Majhi, an engineer at Gurugram, told police that his wife had been locked up in the family apartment for three years and that he had to rent another place to live. The man paid the bills, paid the rent, and drove away, leaving groceries at the door, hoping things would get back to normal soon, but in the end, he decided he needed outside help.
When the police first heard Mahji’s story, they couldn’t believe it, so they called his wife Munmun, who confirmed the man’s story, adding that her 10-year-old son was “perfectly healthy.”
The officer asked the mother if she could confirm the boy’s well-being via video link, and that’s when the police realize the seriousness of the situation. Not only was the house a complete mess, there were mountains of rubbish everywhere, but the boy looked untidy, with shoulder-length hair.
“His mother was in a panic because of Covid. She wasn’t about to come out. She kept saying, “I won’t let my son go out because he will die immediately,” the officer in charge of the case told reporters.
“I kept talking to her, kept asking her if she needed any help. I think she started to trust me. Therefore, when I called her to the police station today, she came, but the child was not with her. We finally managed to convince her. She was taken to the hospital and then we went to the apartment to save the baby.”
When they entered the apartment, the police were shocked. The garbage had not been taken out for three years, so there were heaps of garbage everywhere, a thick layer of dirt covered everything around, and the walls were covered with inscriptions and drawings, probably of a boy who did not communicate with anyone but his mother during a long quarantine.
Both (the mother and her 10-year-old son) have been placed in a psychiatric ward for treatment, but Sujan Majhi hopes their lives will return to normal soon.
