A 19-year-old boy, seen sitting on a garbage dump in Kalwa near Vitawa for the past few days, was finally helped by some good Samaritans in Thane.
Neighbors tried to talk him out of the landfill. Later, with the help of the Thane Municipal Corporation and a police officer, the teenager was brought to a district court with his medical report. The court instructed him to be admitted to Thane Psychiatric Hospital.
It was not easy to get him out of the place and complete the legal process. He used to sit on a bike, jump from one place to another, run in the court compound, sleep on the court bench, or talk to anyone in the compound. It seemed that he wanted to talk too much, but no one understood what he was saying. He wasn’t ready to change his clothes. Besides, he didn’t remember anything about himself. He didn’t eat anything for a day but his energy was tremendous. His tenderness made everyone who helped him stay until the end to make sure he ended up in good hands.
Kasber Augustine, a city activist who was one of the residents helped, said: “I received the video and photo of the young man from a friend. It was heartwarming to see this healthy and handsome young man sitting, eating and sleeping in the dump for the last four or five days. He was eating junk from the garbage, wearing a raincoat and speaking in a different language. No one dared to get him out of that dump. Some of us residents went over and called an ambulance.”
They first checked him out at the psychiatric hospital and then took him to court.
Bramhanand Patil, a police officer from Kalwa, joined the rescuers and said handling it was difficult. “At first he was worried, but then he encouraged me to see the residents and the Regional Disaster Management Cell trying to convince him. The person is young and nice that everyone was thinking why he had come here or what had really happened. We had written a report to present in court, where even the judges were moved and allowed him to be treated in the psychiatric hospital.”
Patil said that he was speaking in Bihari but it was not clear. She said they all prayed that the young man would remember his whereabouts and be reunited with the family.
Dr. Sandip Divekar, dean of the psychiatric hospital, said: “This 19-year-old boy was brought to us by the police and social workers on Friday afternoon. He wasn’t able to remember anything. His clothes were ripped and stank. We will undertake the treatment of him. He will take time to recover and remember things. He is adjusting well to other inmates and we have received no reports of violent behaviour”.
Augustine and her fellow residents went to meet the youth on Saturday. “We were surprised to see him all clean, dressed in clean clothes and sleeping in a bed. He recognized us, laughed and told us that ‘there was a time when he cycled at speed in my area’. But he is still unable to tell his own name and background”.
.
