Thiruvananthapuram: It was an emotional farewell for 81-year-old Lakshmi Bhai Aurshnaro from Maharashtra who had been an inmate of a care home run by social justice department for the past two years. On Sunday she was reunited with her family whom she thought she would never meet again.Thanks to her Aadhaar card and persistent efforts of district legal services authority, she found her family. Lakshmi Bhai, who hails from Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, was on her way to Surat two years ago when she boarded the wrong train and ended up at Kochuveli. She was picked up by the care home authorities and was taken care of since then.When district legal services authority began a campaign to enrol inmates of care homes for Aadhaar, it proved a blessing for Lakshmi Bhai. While taking thumb impression for Aadhar, they got her personal details. Scrutiny of the details showed that she already had a 12 digit number, which revealed details about her native place. The care home officials got in touch with the local authorities of Jalgaon and legal services authority there and more good news followed. She had a family in the village, who have been searching for her for the past two years. The volunteer and lawyer of Jalgaon legal services authority met her relatives and through them they met her family, including two daughters and grandchildren.During her stay at the care home the authorities even took the service of IT professionals from north India assuming that she spoke Marathi in the hope of tracing her native village. She spoke Ahirani, which the Marathi-speaking IT professionals at Technopark could not comprehend.“She was talking in a language which we thought was Marathi. Now, we are happy that we could find a way to reunite her with her family,’’ said Siju Sheik, secretary (sub judge), district legal services authority.

Stay updated with all the Latest Thiruvananthapuram headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.