The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Mothers get counselling to overcome trauma

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 21, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Mothers get counselling to overcome trauma

By Our Staff Reporter

A social worker counselling a woman, who lost her child in the July 16 fire at Kumbakonam, at Natham on Tuesday. — Photo: M. Moorthy

KUMBAKONAM, JULY 20. While most parents of the children killed in the July 16 fire accident in a private school at Kumbakonam have come out of shock, some need counselling to overcome the trauma.

On instructions from J.Radhakrishnan, Thanjavur Collector, social workers have taken up counselling of parents of both the deceased and injured children.

According to M. Sarala, member of Women Organisation in Rural Development, eight mothers of Natham, which lost 13 children, need counselling over a period of time. While many parents buried the bodies immediately, the eight mothers kept the bodies the whole night and buried them only in the morning. Having watched the burnt bodies the whole night they were deeply disturbed. They required some time to come out of shock, Ms. Sarala said.

The state of the mind of children who lost their brother or sister was also bad. Standard VI student, Gayathri, who lost her brother, refused to go to school, she said.

Refreshing contrast

The situation in the ward where twelve injured children are undergoing treatment in the Kumbakonam Government Hospital was refreshingly different. Sitting on bed, they say `namasthe' to visitors, thanks to the attention paid by plastic surgeons from the Kilpauk Medical College, the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, and the Christian Medical College, Vellore. They have been receiving VVIPs for the past four days. Most of them would like to be discharged as early as possible.

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