Abu Dhabi: An Indian worker, who has been in coma since 2015 after a road accident in Abu Dhabi, was repatriated back home on Tuesday after receiving Dh2.4 million in compensation.
When Chithiravel Vinaitheertha Udaiyar, 37, left India for Abu Dhabi the last time, his only daughter was only three months’ old. When he arrived in his hometown of Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, she was meeting him for the first time after that.
“The four-year-old girl has not understood what it means for someone to in coma. She simply stared at him,” Udaiyar’s younger brother, Ganeshan, told Gulf News on phone from India on Wednesday.
He was straightaway taken to a hospital in Namakkal, but doctors said a return to normal life was almost impossible. “The little girl still does not know that,” said Ganeshan Udaiyar.
Chithiravel, an assistant electrician, met with an accident while travelling to work in Abu Dhabi in 2015, the brother said. He has been in coma since then and had been treated at a public hospital in Abu Dhabi.
Following the intervention by the state and central governments in India, officials of the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi visited him at the hospital, but it was not possible to repatriate him without getting compensation for his medical condition, said Dinesh Kumar, counsellor, Community Affairs at the embassy.
He said the insurance company was not willing to pay the compensation, hence the embassy pressured the employer to file a court case against the insurance company. “We were regularly following up the case and finally the court verdict came in his favour,” Kumar said.
The worker’s brother said although the family was very sad about his medical condition, the compensation has given them hope about the future of his wife and only daughter. “We will ensure that she [the daughter] gets good education,” Ganeshan said.
He said another brother also worked with the same company in Abu Dhabi. Initially, he was looking after Chithiravel at the hospital. “Later Chithiravel’s company took me to Abu Dhabi on a visit visa to take care of him. We are grateful to the company and the embassy for their help and support,” Ganeshan said.
A non-government organisation (NGO) that took up the case of Chithiravel with the Indian government said the case would help raise awareness among migrant workers about their rights. “The vehicle involved in the accident was insured, which helped him get the compensation,” sister Josephine Valarmathi of Migrants Forum in India told Gulf News on phone.
