Who Is Sagarika Bhattacharya? Expat Mother Whose Fight Inspires Rani Mukherji Film 'Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway'
The upcoming film of Rani Mukherji, 'Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway' is inspired by a mother's story and her journey to get her children back from a country's controversial system and laws of the land.
Sagarika Bhattacharya Case: A mother is the epitome of patience, love and care, but when the soul of her motherhood is challenged, she stands up to fight whatever may come her way. Mothers across the globe go through such battles every day against the ill-thought customs and rules of society.
Ten years ago, an Indian mother’s fight etched history which shook an entire nation and its system. A battle for her own kids that went on for a year and took the world by storm. The infamous story has now become fresh with Bollywood actress Rani Mukherji’s upcoming film ‘Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway’.
Here we tell our readers about the story that inspired this film, a case that established the power of a mother.
Sagarika And Her Husband’s Life In Norway
A geophysicist by profession, Anurup Bhattacharya married Sagarika in 2007 and the couple moved to Norway. Sagarika returned to Kolkata when she became pregnant with her first child. As per reports, during her time in India, her son Abhigyan started showing Autism-like symptoms. The mother-son duo went back to Norway in 2009.
Sagarika and Anurup put Abhigyan in kindergarten in Norway by 2010 when Sagaika became pregnant with her second child. During her pregnancy, Abhigyan began to show severe characteristic developments that included banging his head on the ground whenever he was irritated.
Sagarika was taking care of herself and her son mostly alone as her husband was working for long hours.
Norway Child Welfare Service At Sagarika’s Home
Norway is known to have a very strict child protection system in place and a long history of controversial cases as it enforces tough regulations irrespective of cultural differences citizens in the country have. If one fails in their so-called observational tests, one can lose custody of the child. A fate Sagarika was soon to meet.
A Child Welfare Service (CWS) team in Norway reached Sagarika’s home in November 2010 after they received ‘alerts’ about Abhigyan and his relationship with his mother, Sagarika. But seeing Sagarika pregnant, the team left without any action. The very next month, Sagarika gave birth to her daughter, Aishwarya.
Meanwhile, Abhgiyan’s symptoms became more severe. He would react adversely when he would see her sister being breastfed. The entire situation started becoming quite tedious for Sagarika to manage alone.
The kindergarten where Sagarika was sending her children began sending out alerts to CWS. She was asked to sit for Marte Meo counselling for being “disorganised, unpunctual, lacking in structure and unable to establish a proper daily routine for herself or her family”. However, the parents alleged that the social worker assigned to their case was contemptuous, rude, and interfering.
In one of the interviews, Sagarika said, “The lady officer from the agency used to often come to observe us. She used to come at any odd time, while I was cooking or feeding my baby. She just used to sit and keep looking at me. I didn’t understand their language very well so [I] wasn’t able to talk too much. But they never even indicated to me at any time that there was any problem, never gave me any warning about what they were writing. I never imagined that they could do such a thing as taking away my children. I was shocked when that happened.”
She added, “Both of us knew about the counselling and observation part and we had openly agreed to it for the sake of our son. But I remember very clearly that when I did request a cancellation or a rescheduling of the home visits, I was told that this would not be possible. Even on days when I wasn’t feeling well, they insisted on coming. I remember being extremely uncomfortable on such occasions and I wanted to be alone with the baby, wanting to rest when the baby slept, but they sat there through everything, just sat there and observed everything, constantly writing down things in their files. On some days, I felt awful, I didn’t know what to do.”
Norwegian Authorities Take Custody Of Sagarika’s Kids
The matter was about to become more serious, on May 11 2011, Sagarika left her son in the kindergarten and returned home for a meeting scheduled with the social worker and two others. An argument broke out between the two parties. As per reports, one of the care workers took Aishwarya under the pretext of taking her out for a walk till the situation cooled down. Moments later, the care workers called up the parents and informed them that both children were now in CWS custody. The news came as shock to the parents who were unaware of the battle they were about to get into.
Story After Norway Took Custody Of Kids
Both Anurup and Sagarika were forbidden from meeting their kids for two days after the authorities took their kids into custody. Remembering her first encounter with kids after two days, Sagarika told The Better India, “I don’t have words…I cannot explain what I felt…I remember I was crying, hysterical, shouting…Later, I heard they had recorded my behaviour as hysterical and taken that as further proof of my unsuitability as a mother. Tell me…how would you react if your children are taken away from you?”
She said that until this time, Abhigyan had received no medical attention for his behaviour, despite the CWS’s involvement. An evaluation was reportedly conducted later and the CWS gave the boy the diagnosis of an attachment disorder. Anurup and Sagarika however claimed they had no idea as to when and how Abhigyan was examined for this condition.
The CWS had objected to Sagarika feeding her kids with hands claiming it to be ‘force feeding’. They were against children sharing beds with their father and said they must have their individual beds. Unaware of the Indian culture, the authorities took away both Aishwarya and Abhgiyan from their parents.
Norway Court Rules Against Sagarika
Sagarika’s battle had already begun. She reached the authorities demanding back the custody of her two kids. In November 2011, the local County Committee on Social Affairs ruled in favour of the CWS, which said that Sagarika should not get custody of her children. The court ordered putting children in foster care till they turned 18.
As a result, Abhigyan and Aishwarya were separated from their parents and placed in Norway’s foster care. Anurup and Abhgiyan were to visit their kids three times a year, for a duration of an hour each. All follow-up appeals by the parents went in vain.
Matter Gets Serious, Indian Government Intervenes
Following the loss at hand in Norway, Sagarika's parents started a campaign back in India and sought the help of the Foreign Ministry. The ministry later intervened and got the case reopened and took the case ahead with the Norwegian authorities.
Notably, by this time, Sagarika’s marriage began to deteriorate as well. In early 2012, news came that the Bhattacharyas have put forth their side of the story. Allegations of cultural differences and bias came to light.
The couple claimed that the CWS had flagged issues such as the parents sleeping in the same bed as the children, using their hands to feed them, etc.
Meanwhile, the CWS continued to cite problems between Sagarika and her children, as well as Sagarika and Anurup, as their point to keep Aishwarya and Abhigyan in Norway while their parents were in India.
Following a long legal battle, the CWS recommended in February 2012 to the Stavanger district court that the children's custody should be given to the uncle Arunabhas Bhattacharya and they should be allowed to return to India. However, there were reports suggesting the CWS wanted a stay on the order of kids being sent to their uncle’s custody and to India.
The children landed in Delhi after Norway allowed them to return to India in April 2012, with their paternal uncle Arunabhas Bhattacharya, foster father and a case worker from Norway's Child Welfare Services (CWS).
The Custody Battle Continues In India
Sagarika’s fight to take back her kids did not end here. Her marriage had already ended by the time the kids came back to India. The condition of Norway that children should stay with their uncle led to another legal battle.
Sagarika filed a petition with Burdwan’s (West Bengal) Child Welfare Committee to have her children transferred to her care. As per reports, she accused her husband’s parents of being reluctant to let her visit her children, and that the kids were not being looked after. After a long hearing, Sagarika was declared psychologically fit to bring up her children in November 2012.
On January 8, 2013, Sagarika Bhattacharya was reunited with her kids in Kolkata.
Talking about her win, she had told NDTV, “I am overwhelmed…as I am able to kiss them and [hold] them in my lap after one full year. I can’t express myself.”
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