Aparna Adhikary (name changed on request) is an executive in the city office of a German firm. She learnt German at Munich’s Goethe Institut after a reasonably successful academic career, and seems to have everything going for her, except that she can't find herself a husband. She is physically challenged.

For Adhikary and hundreds like her, there seems to be a ray of light at the end of the tunnel.

Come September, a unique 'swayamvar sabha' will be organised in the city, exclusively for spastic people.

“Around 550 spastics, who are not mentally challenged and above 21 years of age with little education and having legal guardians, will be invited to choose their life partners,” said Aninda Sanyal, chief executive officer of Relations. The event management group will host the live on-line show at a city hotel.

Relations, also involved in wedding consultancy, had organised such a swayamvar for 800 information technology professionals last December.

For the September event, spastics with a monthly income of over Rs 3,000 have been shortlisted. “This is to ensure that they do not face financial problems in raising their children,” Sanyal, himself an IT professional, explained.

Doctors and psycho-analysts will be present to provide guidance to the organisers.

“Five mandatory tests will be run on the prospective brides and grooms, once they pick their life partners. This is to ensure that a marriage doesn't bring another spastic child into the world,” a Relations official said.

“There has to be extensive counselling to ensure there are no post-wedlock social complications,” stressed Kamal Sinha, head, physical medicine and rehabilitation department, Advanced Medicare and Research Centre.

All available information, including a photograph of the physically-challenged person looking for a spouse, will be displayed on-line and officials of Relations will explain how to go about choosing a partner.

The idea was floated after the death of Payal, a deaf-and-mute model, who committed suicide earlier this year. “We realised how lonely and frustrated a physically-challenged person could be,” Sanyal said.

The organisers expect at least a 30 per cent success for the event.

Relations will also launch a website containing information on the physically-challenged from around the world.