It's been four years since Geeta was rescued and brought back from Pakistan. But the hearing-impaired girl has not been able to find her family yet despite efforts being made by various NGOs. Social media and mobile apps are being brought into play to help locate her family.
Geeta, after her return from Pakistan, has been staying in a facility run by Muk-Badhir Sangathan, an NGO, here. The Madhya Pradesh Social Justice Department is her caretaker. It was by the efforts of late external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj that Geeta was able to come back to India after living there for 15 years.
So far many have come forward to claim her as their daughter, but none has been able to establish their claim. An NGO Anand Service Society has taken the help of social media to locate her family. It has made a page on Facebook — 'Reunite Geeta, a Deaf Girl with family'.
"We are also taking the help of the Face App on the mobile phones to locate her real family. Through this app one can make a 10-year younger picture of the person. We have made the younger Geeta's pictures from this app. We hope this will help us in searching her real family," said Gyanendra Purohit, an activist. "This app has helped missing children in China and Russia to unite with their families. We have an example of a son who had gone missing at the age of three and was found after 18 years. This has given us hope of finding Geeta's family," he added.
So far 24 families have made their claim on Geeta and many among them have unsuccessfully undertaken the DNA matching test. Geeta has been waiting for four years now. Meanwhile, she has joined the special school for education and is also undertaking a skill development course. She prays that someday she will be united with her real family.
