For woman who lost whole family in Wayanad landslides and fiance in road accident, new govt job brings glimmer of hope

The job had been promised to Sruthi by the state government after she faced the back-to-back tragedies.

She had earlier worked as an accountant with a private firm in Kozhikode.

A month before the landslide, Sruthi’s family had moved to a new house at Chooralmala village, where they also held celebrations of her engagement with 24-year-old Jenson.

In the landslides that washed away the villages of Chooralmala and Mundakkai on July 30, she lost her father Shivanna, a mason; her mother Sabitha, a shop worker; and younger sister Sreya, a college student. Their newly constructed home, 15 sovereigns (nearly 120 grams) of gold and Rs 4 lakh in cash that her parents had kept aside for her wedding, were washed away. Her paternal uncle, Siddaraj, his wife Divya, and their son also died in the landslide.

After the landslides, it was Jenson who was trying to nurse her back from the trauma. The two, who came from different faiths, had been friends since school.

However, a road accident on September 11 killed Jenson and left Sruthi seriously injured.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state government had promised that Sruthi would receive support. With her joining the government service on Monday, that promise has been fulfilled, he said.

Meanwhile, the Wayanad district administration on Monday put the total number of probable deaths in the landslide as 298. The total number of persons identified is 254 and 44 are still missing. Of the victims, 84 were identified through their DNA. During the rescue operations, 231 bodies and several body parts had been recovered from the debris.