Twenty men, including a priest and a `writer', have responded to a Facebook advert seeking a match for Geeta, a deaf-and-mute girl who returned from Pakistan after accidentally landing in that country when she was a child.
A social activist here, who is involved in the search for Geeta's long-lost parents, put up a post on Facebook nine days ago, seeking marriage proposals for her.
Gyanendra Purohit, the activist, today said 20 men have shown interest in marrying her and sent bia-data. Of them, 12 persons are disabled, while the rest do not have any disability, he said.
One of them is a temple priest while another claims to be a writer, he said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj -- who was instrumental in bringing Geeta back to India -- had asked him to look for a match for the girl, Purohit had claimed earlier.
He put up a post on the Facebook page `Reunite Geeta, a deaf girl, with her family', which was originally created to search for Geeta's parents, on April 10.
The advert said they were looking for a "good and smart deaf boy", age above 25 years, for "India's daughter Geeta".
It also made it clear that it is Geeta who would decide on the proposals, and the Union government would take further steps.
Geeta is staying in a facility run by Muk-Badhir Sangathan, an NGO, here. The MP Social Justice Department is her caretaker.
Geeta was found alone aboard 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. She returned to India in 2015.
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.
(PTI)
