Indore: Twenty men, including a priest and a writer have responded to a Facebook matrimonial advertisement seeking a match for Geeta, the hearing-and-speech impaired girl who returned from Pakistan after accidentally landing in that country when she was a child.
A social activist in Indore, who is actively trying to reunite Geeta’s with her long-lost parents, put up a post on Facebook nine days ago seeking a marriage proposals for her.
Gyanendra Purohit, the activist, said today that so far twenty men have responded with interest, saying they would like to marry her. They have sent their bio-data as well. Of them, 12 persons are people with disabilities, while the rest do not have any disability, the activist said.
One of them is a temple priest while another says he is a writer, he said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj — who was instrumental in bringing Geeta back to India — had asked Gyanendra Purohit to look for a match for Geeta, Mr Purohit claimed, according to news agency PTI.
He put up a post on the Facebook page ‘Reunite Geeta’, which was originally created on April 10 to search for Geeta’s parents.
The advertisement had made it clear that it is Geeta who will ultimately decide on the proposals, and the Union government would take further steps accordingly.
Geeta is currently staying in a facility run by Muk-Badhir Sangathan, an NGO in Indore. The Madhya Pradesh Social Justice Department is her caretaker.
Geeta was found alone on board the ‘Samjhauta Express’ at Lahore when she was seven or eight years old. It is surmised that she accidentally boarded the train somewhere in India.
Karachi-based Edhi Foundation took care of her while she lived in Pakistan.
So far more than ten couples from different parts of India have claimed that Geeta is their long-lost daughter, but none of them could establish the claim.
Inputs from PTI
