Mumbai homeless shelters and police assistance have helped reunite a 34-year-old man from West Bengal with his family, seven years after he disappeared from the Mumbai region and began living on the streets. Laltu Khan, originally from Howrah district, is now expected to return home after receiving treatment and support at a shelter in New Panvel.
Khan had worked as a zari embroidery worker in Andheri for nearly 15 years, earning about Rs 500 for each garment embroidery job. According to the report, a series of personal events disrupted his life after he married his childhood sweetheart, Anuwar Khatun, in 2018 despite opposition from her family.
Khatun died by suicide later that year amid the family tension, after which Khan became mentally unwell and stopped taking interest in his work. He began roaming around the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and was living as a homeless person by 2019. He lost contact with his family in West Bengal, who had continued trying to locate him and filed a missing persons complaint at Amta police station in Howrah.
Navi Mumbai police spotted Khan in 2023 and admitted him to the Social and Evangelical Association for Love, or SEAL, shelter in New Panvel. At the shelter, he received psychiatric treatment and gradually began sharing information about himself with social workers.
The process of identifying his family remained difficult because Khan could initially provide only fragments of information. SEAL worker S Jainamma said a Bengali-speaking pastor, Gourang Jwalani, was eventually able to speak with Khan and obtain his full home address in Howrah. The shelter then contacted his brothers and sisters, who were relieved to learn that he had been found after seven years.
The case shows how shelter access, treatment and communication support can become critical links for people who have lost contact with their families while living on city streets. It also illustrates the practical difficulty of tracing homeless people when illness, trauma and language barriers limit the information they can provide.
SEAL founder Pastor K M Philip said the reunion demonstrated that homeless people could overcome mental health and personal difficulties when they were rescued and treated at the right time. He also called for more government homeless shelters so that other vulnerable people could receive similar support.
Khan was reported to be in a jovial mood and thanked those who helped him find a proper pathway in life. His family members are expected to travel to the New Panvel shelter soon to take him back to West Bengal.
