A Messiah Orphans Geeta: Pakistani Philanthropist Bilquis Edhi Who Looked After Deaf-mute Indian Girl Geeta Died

Islamabad, April 16 : Bilquis Edhi, the wife of late renowned Pakistani philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, who sheltered Indian deaf-mute girl Geeta at the Edhi Foundation home in Karachi for several years, has died. She was 74. The Indian High Commission on Saturday expressed its condolences in a tweet. “High Commission of India expresses its heartfelt condolences on the passing away of Bilquis Edhi. Hers and Edhi foundation’s humanitarian assistance is well appreciated across borders. RIP @Edhiorg”, it said.

Bilquis Edhi had been undergoing treatment in a private hospital for the last six days after suffering cardiac arrest. She was suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes. She died of a heart attack on Friday. Balqis Edhi became the chairperson of the Edhi Foundation after the death of Abdul Sattar Edhi. She was a professional nurse and one of the most active philanthropists in Pakistan. She had been nicknamed The Mother of Pakistan. She was born in 1947 in Karachi and was head the Bilquis Edhi Foundation. Along with her husband she received the 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. Her charity runs many services in Pakistan including a hospital and emergency service in Karachi.

Last year, Bilquis was declared the ‘Person of the Decade’, along with human rights rapporteur of the UN Prof Yanghee Lee and the US ethicist Stephen Soldz. Her charity saved over 42,000 unwanted babies so far by placing “jhoolas” [cradles] at the Edhi Homes and centres across the country. Geeta, a deaf-mute woman in her early 20s, was sent back to India in October 2015 after spending 13 years in Pakistan, looked after by the Edhi Foundation. Geeta was about 11-years-old when she had wandered across the border and landed in Lahore. Her story captivated both Pakistanis and Indians following the release of the Bollywood film with a similar plot in 2015 –”Bajrangi Bhaijaan”, in which actor Salman Khan plays an Indian man who travels to Pakistan to reunite a deaf-mute girl with her family. The Edhi Foundation was taking care of Geeta since 2003.

According to an interview of Bilquis Edhi published in Dawn in March 2021, Geeta’s real name is Radha, and she had been in touch with her to inform her about the happy news of being reunited with her parents. When Bilquis took in Geeta, she had named her Fatima as the child only referred to herself as ‘Guddi’. She had scribbled that name. “Then after observing her ways of touching feet, etc, I realised that she was Hindu. That’s when I changed her name to Geeta,” Bilquis Edhi had told Dawn. She even used to take her for pooja to the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on M.A. Jinnah Road but after they found themselves gathering too much attention, Bilquis Edhi asked her to buy some Hindi deity posters and statues to make a home temple where she could pray in privacy. Being used to working with people with all kinds of issues, Geeta’s condition never caused a communication problem with Bilquis, who could understand her quite well.

After the girl’s story became known in the media in 2015, arrangements were made by the late Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to have the girl flown back home. But even after she got to India, the search for her family continued. The Indian government and NGOs even ran DNA tests of people who were missing a daughter around the time Geeta was discovered in Pakistan but the tests didn’t match. Geeta herself, too, wasn’t sure about them. But now Geeta has actually recognised her mother. She got in touch with Bilquis Edhi and told her all about it with happy tears in March last year. Her mother lives in Naigaon village in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Through her, Geeta has found out that her real name is Radha Waghmare.

Her biological father, Sudhakar, died a few years ago. Her mother, Meena has remarried. The family is not rich and makes ends meet by selling clay pots. With her search over, Geeta, or rather Radha, who is around 28 years of age now, is not really looking forward to moving to the village. She is currently a student. She studies in class eight and wants to complete her special education before making any further decisions though she has shown the desire to find a job after that. “She may be living in another country now. But she is still a daughter. She still shares all her joys and sorrows with me despite the physical distance between us. And I will be with her on whatever decision she takes for herself,” Bilquis Edhi told Dawn. Last year in March, when India was impacted very badly with the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the Edhi Foundation had offered to send a fleet of 50 ambulances to India to assist with the massive surge in Covid cases. Faisal Edhi, the director of Edhi Foundation and the son of late Abdul Sattar Edhi, the founder of the organisation, had conveyed the offer in a letter to PM Modi.

“We are very sorry to hear about the exceptionally heavy impact that the pandemic has had on your country, where a tremendous number of people are suffering immensely. As a neighbouring friend, we sympathise with you greatly and during this strenuous time, we would like to extend our help in the form of fleet of 50 ambulances along with our services to assist you in addressing, and further circumventing, the current health conditions,” said the letter, which was sent to the Indian mission in Islamabad. UNI RN