The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Nikhita settles down with mom

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Friday, Sep 29, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Nikhita settles down with mom

M.L. Melly Maitreyi

The NGO Gamana had given shelter to her mother Nazia when she was abandoned and in deep depression. Now Nazia works as an office assistant at Gamana

IN MOTHER'S LAP: Nikhita with her biological mother Nazia. Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

HYDERABAD: Two-year-old Nikhita, who was restored to her biological mother on Wednesday, seems to be settling down perfectly in her new home.

Brought up by foster parents Swarupa and Bhikshapathi for 16 months, the child is yet to warm to her own mother Nazia just after an overnight's stay but the little one promptly points to Nazia when you ask her about her mom.

Temporarily put up with NGO Gamana's coordinator Sudha's family at East Anandbagh Colony in Malkajgiri, it is Sudha's mother-in-law Satyavathi who is Nikhita's current favourite though she is game for some fun with Sudha's five-year-old daughter Vedapriya.

Worried neighbours had reportedly separated the child from her mentally unwell mother Nazia at Borabanda before Swarupa and her husband took her into their fold. Nazia, cured and normal, returned and pleaded with the couple to return her child.

Legal battle

The custody of the child snowballed into a legal battle with Nazia lodging a complaint with Sanjeevareddy Nagar Police Station and the State Commission for Women taking it up suo motu. The child was finally returned to the biological mother following a court directive.

It was Gamana that gave Nazia shelter when she was in severe depression after being abandoned by both her husband hailing from Kerala and her mother and siblings here. Nazia, as per the court directive, had patiently stayed at the Institute of Mental Health in Erragadda while the legal procedures unfolded. When doctors certified she was perfectly fit to look after the child, Nikhita was restored to her.

Not easy

"It is not easy for a normal person to live in a mental asylum for a month. Yet she did as she did not want to give scope for anyone to deny her custody of her child," Ms. Sudha says.

"Swarupa, who has her own daughter, will still get to see Nikhita," says SWC Chairperson Mary Ravindranath who visited Nikhita on Thursday.

Nazia, working as an office assistant in Gamana now, looks forward to a life with her daughter. "I have no family except Gamana. I will pick up vocational skills and give a good education to my daughter," Nazia says.

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