RAJAHMUNDRY: Fear of getting infected by the Covid-19 virus kept three women of a family confined to a small tent house for nearly 15 months, before local police and villagers managed to coax them to come out of the dilapidated cloth shelter.
The shocking incident happened in Kadali village, which falls under Razole mandal in East Godavari district in AP.
The family’s ‘home isolation’ started after an old woman, who used to live opposite their hut, succumbed to the virus during the first wave of Covid-19 last year.
After that the three women never came out of the hut. They even attended nature’s call inside the small enclosure.
The two male members of the five-member family — comprising of Chuttugulla John Benny (50), his wife Chuttugulla Ruthamma (46), son Chuttugulla Chinna Babu (29), and daughters Chuttugulla Rani (31) and Chuttugulla Kanthammam (27) — were the ones to go out in the morning to run their cycle repair shop in the village and return in the evening.
Razole sub-inspector Krishnamachary Bejjanki said they were alerted by the village sarpanch about the family on July 18.
“They were found to be living in extremely unhygienic conditions and looked malnourished and dirty. The mother and daughters also seemed mentally disturbed. All three used to sleep in a single cot with dirty blankets for more than a year. They hadn’t taken a bath. It was a terrible sight,” he said.
A village volunteer recently went to get their thumb impression for a government scheme, and after seeing their condition, immediately informed sarpanch Choppala Gunanath, who then called the cops and also rushed to the spot along with other villagers.