37 years after cop dream broken, Kerala woman aces rescue role | India News – Times of India

Vijayakumari, a 57-year-old anganwadi teacher at Muppainad panchayat, was also the first woman volunteer to reach the disaster zone after the twin landslides almost a week ago.

MEPPADI (WAYANAD): Not all broken dreams die; some live to find a way in the most unusual circumstances.
Anganwadi teacher Vijayakumari N S, who couldn’t become a policewoman because her father tore off her selection letter 37 years ago, found inspiration in her unfulfilled dream to work alongside uniformed forces as the lone woman civilian volunteer helping retrieve and transport bodies in the aftermath of Wayanad’s worst natural disaster.
Vijayakumari, a 57-year-old anganwadi teacher at Muppainad panchayat, was also the first woman volunteer to reach the disaster zone after the twin landslides almost a week ago.
Her mission started the moment she woke up to her phone ringing at 4am on July 30. Two landslides in as many hours had left Mundakkai and Chooralmala devastated, the caller said.
Vijayakumari stepped out within minutes, riding her scooter to Chooralmala in blinding rain. She reached the area around 5am, only to find the neighbourhood she knew reduced to heaps of mud and slush.
Vijayakumari immediately offered to join the rescue effort, telling officials that she was a trained civil defence volunteer. By 8pm, she had helped retrieve 17 bodies.
“It was an unsettling sight, but one that I couldn’t turn my back on,” she told TOI.
Over the next two days, Vijayakumari worked tirelessly in the temporary morgue set up at Meppadi to keep bodies and body parts brought from Nilambur. “I had to constantly keep my emotions in check. I thought my presence would help the women who came to identify their loved ones. Some fainted on being shown mutilated bodies,” she said.
Vijayakumari, a brown belt in karate, believes that not being able to fulfil her dream of joining the police force shouldn’t prevent her from going out of her comfort zone in the traditionally genderised role of an anganwadi teacher.
“I have been active in social service for long, even doing medical palliative work whenever there’s been an opportunity,” she said.
As a volunteer of the District Legal Services Authority, she had previously visited all houses in Chooralmala and Mundakkai wards.