Tiny clue on nose leads woman to family after 20 years

Geeta, 29, who was lost after she strayed into Pakistan 20 years ago has been reunited with her family. She returned to India in 2015 and it took her five years to locate her family in Maharashtra with the help of an NGO.

Parbhani (Maharashtra):The dream of late Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to help a deaf-mute girl who had strayed into Pakistan some 20 years ago and reunite her with her family was finally fulfilled last week.

Geeta, 29, returned to her home in Parbhani in Maharashtra after a frantic search for five years since her repatriation to India in 2015 and reunited with her family, feeling safe, sound and smiling with joy.

After she landed in India over six years ago, a massive nationwide search was launched by the government, semi-government agencies, NGOs like the Anand Service Society (ASS) of Indore, which was handed Geeta's custody in July 2020.

Pak returnee Geeta nears finding parents after 26 years of separation

After a series of all-India travails to track her family, an NGO, Pahal Foundation founder-directors Aniket Selgaonkar and Pradeep More helped the ASS find Geeta's kin in a village and handed her over to her mother on March 2 -- over 20 years after she was 'lost'.

Pak returnee Geeta taking basic lessons of computer

Soon after Geeta arrived in India, the late Sushma Swaraj, (who passed away in August 2019) had given her custody to the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who had promised to locate her family.

Since then, the Madhya Pradesh government entrusted the Indore Deaf Bilingual Academy which tried for nearly five years to locate her family before handing her over to the Anand Service Society (ASS).

Pak returnee Geeta taking basic lessons of Mathematics

ASS's Gyanendra Purohit stumbled upon a tiny clue -- Geeta's nose was pierced on the right side, common in the Marathwada region, instead of the usual left practised all over -- and launched the search which ended in Parbhani.

"Other clues also helped -- a maternity hospital outside the railway station surrounded by sugarcane fields and a childhood burn-mark on her tummy. Now, only the final DNA test remains," More told ETV Bharat.

Her overjoyed mother, Meena Pandhare, revealed that Geeta was actually 'Radha' and has siblings -- a sister Pooja Bansode and a brother, suffering from a mental illness.

Pahal Foundation (Parbhani) founder, Selgaonkar said that Geeta loves Marathi cuisine which she missed during her long years in Pakistan and then in Madhya Pradesh, but is still reluctant to move in with her new-found family now living in Naigaon.

"She is taking basic lessons in English, Hindi, Marathi and computers at the Pahal Foundation, and mostly clad in 'salwar-kameez' all these years, she is learning to drape the 'sari', too," he added.

More and Selgaonkar say Geeta is independent-minded and wants to stand on her own feet, earn a living before joining her mom and maybe even "settle down" in life..!