A homecoming that restores hope: How missing elderly Indians are being reunited with their families

EVERYDAY somewhere in India a family receives a phone call they had almost given up hoping for mdash a missing mother a lost son or a husband who vanished years ago has been found In the last six months alone Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation has reunited 805 wandering persons living with mental illness with their families turning heartbreak into homecomings and proving that recovery is possibleFor another family in Bihar it was a son who had disappeared without a trace and for another in Odisha it was a mother whose children had almost forgotten the sound of her voiceWhen Shraddha foundation spotted BalabaiCloser to home in Maharashtra two daughters who spent weeks travelling from one railway police station to another refusing to believe that their mother had simply vanished without a traceA happy common thread runs through these stories mdash they all end with the phone call with a phone call from a happy voice on the other end saying ldquoWe have found your loved onerdquoThe ID that was used to crosshcheck her identityItrsquos no ordinary feat that the Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation has been able to reunite 805 wandering persons with their family between January and June 2026 This means the foundation helped bring more than four people back home every single day mdash an extraordinary achievement that reflects its unwavering commitment to restoring lives and reconnecting familiesJune alone witnessed 160 reunions while June 11 became the organisationrsquos most remarkable day when 18 people returned home to their families in just 24 hoursAmong them were two mothers reunited not only with their loved ones but also with their four young childrenEach reunion ended years or sometimes months of unanswered questions805Individuals reunited with families in last six monthsOne of the 805A 65yearold mother found after four monthsAmong the hundreds reunited this year was Balabai name changed a 65yearold homemaker from Yerur village Chandrapur district in MaharashtraBefore mental illness entered her life Balabai was a multitasker and was always on the ball Not only did she raise her three daughters but she was also active enough to travel to New Zealand until a few years agoThen came years of psychiatric illness Although she had received treatment her medication became irregular and episodes of confusion returnedOne morning in April 2026 Balabai left home intending to travel to her daughterrsquos house in Bhusawal She carried a valid railway ticket But in a disturbed mental state she boarded the wrong train When the family realised she was missing the search began almost immediately Her husband daughters and soninlaw visited railway police stations registered missing complaints and even checked CCTV footage for ten days across Chandrapur Nagpur and surrounding areasFinally one ray of hope emerged when Balabai was found on CCTV footage boarding a train towards Betul Soon the family headed to Betul but the trail ran cold The family however left no stone unturned and circulated her photograph via newspapers Facebook and WhatsApp groups the NGO circuit They coordinated the same with the police visited hospitals and traced her last mobile phone signal to Bhandewadi in NagpurOn May 22 social workers from Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation found Balabai wandering near Savarkar Nagar Chowk in Nagpur She was rescued and brought into care With psychiatric treatment food and compassion her condition gradually improved Piece by piece memories returnedEventually so did the name of her village Then her familyrsquos identity When Shraddha contacted her family disbelief quickly gave way to tearsFor Denit Mathew Trustee of Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation Balarsquos story mirrors hundreds of others ldquoPeople usually see only the reunion They donrsquot see the weeks of searching the police coordination the railway enquiries the psychiatric treatment or the painstaking effort to identify someone who may not even remember their own name Behind every rescue is a family waiting hoping and praying that their loved one will returnrdquo he says The figure of 805 is not just an organisation milestone for him ldquoItrsquos not just a statistic It represents 805 homes where hope was restored Watching families embrace after months or years of separation is what keeps our team goingrdquo he addsWaiting is tortureDr Swarali Kondwilkar on how families struggle with the decision of when to stop the searchBalabai reunited with her familyHis colleague psychiatrist Dr Swarali Kondwilkar describes this emotional limbo as one of the most painful aspects of mental illness ldquoThe hardest psychological question is when does a family stop waiting for the return of a loved one who disappeared because of mental illness And when does hope finally give way to closurerdquo she saidShraddharsquos work extends beyond rescuing people from the streetsEvery reunion sends a powerful message that mental illness is not a life sentence It is treatablethinspRecovery is possible Families need not lose hopethinspOne reunion video from Odisha has been viewed nearly two million times online encouraging families to seek treatment rather than hide mental illness behind shame and silence If closure ever had an exampleDr Bharat Vatwani founder of Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation talks about the ethos behind the workDr Bharat VatwaniFor Dr Bharat Vatwani Founder of Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation and recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award these reunions are about much more than locating missing persons ldquoPeople often ask us how many people we have reunited I believe the more important question is how many families have finally found closurerdquo he says The reunion he believes restores not just the missing person but also the family ldquoThe entire family that has lived with uncertainty Mental illness doesnrsquot affect only the person suffering from it mdash it also scars parents spouses children neighbours and in many villages entire communitiesrdquo he addsDrawing on decades of experience rescuing wandering persons living with mental illness Dr Vatwani says Indiarsquos biggest challenge is stigmaTheir work in villages in India he believes gives people the hope that they too can find and support families who might be suffering from mental health issues ldquoOur work has taken us to hundreds of districts across India many of them remote and underserved We have seen firsthand how poverty migration lack of psychiatric care and stigma combine to create silent human tragediesrdquo he says ldquoEvery successful reunion tells society that mental illness is treatable recovery is possible and no family should lose hoperdquo he addsThe geography of Shraddharsquos work reveals a crisis that stretches far beyond Indiarsquos citiesIn the past year alone the organisation reunited people with their families across districts in Bihar Maharashtra West Bengal Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand Odisha Madhya Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Gujarat Telangana Assam Delhi Rajasthan Tamil Nadu and KarnatakaldquoOur work across hundreds of districts has shown us that wandering persons living with mental illness are not an urban phenomenon They are found in the smallest villages and remote districts where poverty migration stigma and the lack of psychiatric services often combine to create silent human tragedies Every successful reunion chips away at the stigma surrounding mental illnessrdquo he saysA daughter who never gave upFor Shital Gowardipe 39 a homemaker from Chandrapur the phone call from Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation relieved her from purgatoryShital Gowardipe 39 whose 65yearold mother Balabai name changed had been living with mental illness for nearly 15 years had gone missing on May 18 after boarding the wrong train despite having a reserved ticket to Bhusawal ldquoWe searched everywhere We approached railway police stations in Ballarshah and Chandrapur and were directed to Wardha railway police station where we lodged a missing complaint We checked CCTV footage and kept trying her mobile phone The last location we got was Nagpur before the phone was switched off We had almost run out of leadsrdquo Shital recalledThe family including her husband 70 and daughters one in Bhusawal and another settled in New Zealand and third in Chandrapur had exhausted every possible avenue when Shraddha social worker Nilima Jangam contacted themldquoIt felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from our hearts We cannot thank the Shraddha team enoughrdquo Shital said Her daughter Sandhya who lives in New Zealand recalls ldquoOn June 11 my father received a call from the Foundation informing us that they had found my mother in Nagpur and were bringing her homerdquo she tells us Now home Balabai is back on medication ldquoOur priority now is to make sure she never goes through this againrdquoGrief of missing family has no languageUnlike death disappearance offers no closureFamilies do not know whether to mourn or to waitBedrooms remain untouchedClothes stay folded in cupboardsBirthdays continue to be observedEvery unknown phone call brings a surge of hopeMental illness often turns this uncertainty into a prolonged emotional prisonMany people living with untreated psychiatric illnesses leave home in a disturbed state board the wrong bus or train forget their identity and eventually become homeless wandering from one town to anotherTheir families continue searching Sometimes for months Sometimes for years or Sometimes for decades