It has now turned normal for relatives to abandon senior citizens or to leave them in the care of a home nurse while the children go abroad in pursuit of a posh life. Kerala ranks top where senior citizens are forced to live a solitary life in the care of a home nurse. Many of these home nurses come through authorized agencies. Sometimes, there will be a dearth and Malayali home nurses will be scanty. This forces the family members to look into other options as they settle for home nurses who are mostly migrant natives settled in Kerala. At an initial glance, the deal may look like a bonus as these migrant workers are laborious and will engage in all tedious work, including domestic and anything the family suggest. But apart from their benign side, there also exists a frightening one and it became more evident with the Varkala incident.

Sridevi Amma (74), daughter-in-law Deepa and home nurse Sindhu were drugged by Sohila (28), their Nepali maid, after adding liquor to chappati and kurma curry provided for dinner. The incident took place on Tuesday at 9 pm. The maid and her gang stole Rs 35,000 and gold jewellery from the ‘Lime Villa’ near Elakamon Varkala.

Sridevi Amma's son Rajeev works in Bengaluru. At 10 pm, he called his wife, Deepa but the call went unattended. Rajeev then called the home nurse which also didn't help. He then informed relatives staying near his hometown to have a look at the house. When the relatives reached Lime Villa, they were shocked to see the four-member gang running away.

Janardhana Upadhyay, a culprit involved in the robbery, was found by the locals at 11 pm when his leg got stuck in the wire fence while he tried to jump a wall. 35,000 rupees and gold were recovered from his bag. Another one named Ram Kumar, who was hiding in the nearby area, was caught at 4 am by locals. If not for the timely phone call from Rajeev, the gang would have easily escaped the place.

On another note, the family members survived the robbery and have been admitted to a private hospital in Kollam, with no injuries. Sohila started her work as a domestic maid in the house just two weeks back.

The need to register details of migrant domestic maids to responsible authorities is pertinent and requires all attention. We are not implying all migrant workers have this shady side with them, but, it is appropriate for family members to submit details of their migrant labourer to the nearest official as it reduces the chances of any untoward incident, and assures the needed safety for the employers.