Woman fights for maintenance for disabled daughter

CHENNAI: R Solaiamma (50), a single mother, goes to the family court every two months, fighting for maintenance and financial support for her only child. A helper at an Ennore school, she is forced to take her mentally challenged daughter Sujatha along so that she can supervise the girl while at work.
“My daughter is 30 years old but still looks like an adolescent.My husband, a Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) employee, left us when she was born a year after we got married. He was posted in Tuticorin but didn’t come back after that. When I went to visit him, I found he was staying with another woman,” Solaiamma recounted.
Living in a thatched hut near the coast, she pays a rent of 500 from her monthly salary of 2,000. “We were given a favourable order two years ago with the judge directing my husband to pay 3,000 as monthly maintenance. He did not comply. About 10 months ago, a warrant was executed against him, based on the orders of the court, after which he paid 50,000. I was given 20,000 while my lawyer claimed the rest. My husband has not paid me anything since then,” she said.
Solaiamma said she also sought that her husband deposit 1 lakh in her daughter’s name as a measure of security for the girl. Her case is set to come up for hearing in the first additional family court on June 2.
“I would catch a bus to Tiruvallur to go and meet him every month but his colleagues informed me that he had retired six months ago. He had collected benefits of 9 lakh. In addition, he has agricultural land in Kumbakonam that yields him returns. He has married off his two daughters (Solaiamma’s step-children) and has one son. He can afford to help look after Sujatha. After all, she is his daughter too.”
My daughter is 30 years old but still looks like an adolescent. My husband, a TNEB employee, left us when she was born a year after we got married.