Geeta, who accidentally crossed the border when she was found at the Karachi railway station at the age of 11–12 and was sheltered by a Muslim family who runs a trust.
A deaf and dumb Indian girl, who was rescued by a social welfare organization in Pakistan after accidentally ending up in this country before being deported back to India in 2015, has finally reunited with her real mother in Maharashtra.
Bilkis Edhi, wife of the late Abdul Sattar Edhi, who now runs the world-famous Edhi Welfare Trust and who has developed a close relationship with Geeta (29), said the Indian girl was reunited with her real mother in the state of Maharashtra was given. Dawn The newspaper reported.
Ms. Bilkes said, “He is in touch with me and this weekend he gave me good news about meeting his real mother.”
“Her real name is Radha Waghmare and she found her mother in the village of Naigaon in the state of Maharashtra,” she also confirmed to PTI.
Geeta attracted the attention of media and governments in both countries in 2015 but according to Ms. Bilkes she found Geeta when she was around 11-12 years old at a railway station and sheltered her at her center in Karachi. “When she was found in Karachi, she wandered into Pakistan and was shelterless,” he said.
“She lived in the AD Center for years and I cared for her and we named her Fatima. Later when I came to know that she was a Hindu, we named her Geeta and even though she could not speak or hear, but We spoke properly through sign language, ”said Ms. Bilkes.
In 2015, after Geeta’s story broke, the late External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arranged for him to be sent back home.
Ms. Bilkes said that it took Gita almost four and a half years to find her real parents. Geeta has also recognized her mother and she now lives with her family in the village of Naigaon. Her biological father died a few years ago, so her mother, Meena, remarried, ”he said.
Parbhani is headed to Maharashtra after a five-year-long search to find Geeta’s family, where she is now being trained in sign language by Pahal, an NGO working for hearing and speech.
Speaking to PTI, Pahal’s Dr. Anand Selgokar said that Geeta was handed over to another Indore-based NGO Anand Services Society on July 20, 2020 and Gyanendra Purohit of that NGO visited Parbhani for the first time in December last year.
The search for the last five years involved screening procedures for at least a dozen families from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Rajasthan who claim they had blood ties to Geeta.
Mr. Purohit said that the search led to NGO Meena Waghmare (71), who lived in Jintur in Parbhani district, when her daughter Radha (Geeta) went missing. “, Meena told us that her daughter had burn marks on her stomach and when we checked it came out true.”
Geetha’s father and Meena’s first husband Sudhakar Waghmare died a few years ago and she now lives near Aurangabad with her second husband. He said that tears came out of Meena’s eyes when she met Geeta for the first time.
Geeta could not understand a word about what Meena said as speech and hearing were impaired, she communicated only through sign language.
It is likely that Geeta reached Parbhani and went from Sachkhand Express to Amritsar and later boarded the Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express, Mr. Selgaonkar said.
Geeta has now spent about one and a half months in Parbhani and often meets Meena and the latter’s married daughter, who lives in the Marathwada region. “It is for the government officials to decide when to conduct the DNA test. Till then Geeta will continue to receive training in the initiative,” Mr. Selgaonkar said.
Ms. Bilkes said that she was just happy that Geeta who was like a daughter to her, finally reconnected with her real family. “Losing from your family for so long is difficult for anyone and especially for someone special like Geeta,” she said.
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