4-yr-old Kerala boy, separated from parents due to lockdown, re-united after a month

By the time the child’s father completed his mandatory quarantine, the lockdown came into force, due to which the parents were unable to bring their child back.

A four-year-old boy from Kerala, who was forced to be away from his parents for over a month due to the lockdown, was re-united, thanks to the intervention of firefighters.

A man prays from a distance at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, amid coronavirus lockdown. (ANI File)

After the boy’s father, an electrician, was asked to go on home quarantine in mid-March, the parents--Sajith and Vishnupriya from Kambalakad at nearby Kalpetta --shifted their son to a relative’s house at Shoranur in Palakkad district.

Sajith was working at Payyannur in Kannur, and a COVID-19 case was reported in that area in mid-March, following which he was asked to go on quarantine.

By the time Sajith completed his mandatory quarantine, the lockdown came into force, due to which the parents were unable to bring their child back.

The couple approached the Kalpetta MLA CK Saseendran for help and the legislator got in touch with Wayanad Collector Dr Adeela Abdulla, who intervened to reunite the child with his parents.

Two fire and rescue officials from Palakkad, Anup and Santosh, picked up the boy and his uncle in their vehicle from Shoranur on Friday morning, brought him to Kozhikode and handed him over to their counterparts in Kalpetta.

“The boy was brought in a Fire Force vehicle from Shoranur to Kozhikode from where our team went and brought him here and handed over to his parents by noon,”K M Jomy, Station Officer, Fire & Rescue, Kalpetta, said.