National Girl Child Day: Sreeja now has a family, career to look forward

Thiruvananthapuram: T. Sreeja, 37, still shudders when her native place Aninja in Kasaragod experiences rain and heavy winds. She had lost her parents, two elder brothers and a sister in the heavy winds when a giant tree was uprooted and landed on top of their home on July 20, 1994. The then K. Karunakaran Government took Sreeja as the first adopted daughter of the state. Her elder sister, Sulochana, was luckily spared from the freak accident as she was then at her husband’s home.

It was the then district collector of Kasaragod, P. Mara Pandiyan (current additional chief secretary), who recommended to the government to adopt a shocked Sreeja who was then a 15-year-old. If given a chance, Sreeja and her husband, C. P. V. Vinod Kumar, a social science teacher at Government High School at Thachangad in Kasaragod never hesitate to meet her saviour, Mara Pandiyan. Last year when their elder daughter Sreelakshmi, a Plus One student of Hosdurg Higher Secondary School had contested in Ottanthullal at the School Youth Festival, the family found time to meet him.

The soft-spoken Sreeja has now got everything – qualifications, a job, a family, a home, but she misses her parents and siblings more than anything in life. “Immediately after doing my pre-degree, the government gave me a job as a clerk in the revenue department. Though I didn’t have many relatives, my late mother’s two sisters, Lakshmi and Karthiyani, doted on me. But the government gave me the social security I needed and am forever grateful to them,” said Sreeja. She recalled to DC that every year during the Malayalam month of Karkidakam the district is notorious for heavy winds. The couple has got a younger daughter, Meenakshi, who is studying in Class XIII at Durga Higher Secondary School, Kanhangad.