Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway: Ordeal of a Mother Re-lived by Rani Mukherjee

Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway: What happened with Avirup and Sagarika Bhattacharya? Reality of world’s 6th happiest country.

 The first trailer of Rani Mukherjee’s back-on box office film ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’ has been released, leaving the internet in awe of her performance. The trailer shows the story of an immigrant Indian mother who lives a peaceful life with her husband and two children until that drastically turn when a Norwegian foster care snatches her children.

The true story of Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway

Imagine living in a foreign land, dreaming about the perfect family, and saving for the best education and care for your children. However, one day the country’s child welfare department decides that you are not an ideal parent to them, and snatches your children away because you are not bringing them up properly. Sounds like a nightmare! 

Well, Kolkata’s Sagarika Bhattacharya lived with this scary reality for two-long-years. 

On 11 May 2011, two children, Aishwarya and Avigyan, were taken away from their parents, Sagarika and Avirup, by Norway’s government-run Child Protective services. The matter went to court. The court ruled that the children would be placed in separate foster homes until 18, and parents could see them only twice a year for an hour. 

On which grounds did the Child Protective service take the children away? 

The couple who lived in Stavanger city in Norway revealed the following reasons. 

The officials visited the couple based on an anonymous complaint and concluded: 

• The kids were fed with hands which was equated to force-feeding. 
• Children were sharing the bed with their parents. 
• Kids didn’t have enough toys and a sufficient place to play. 
• Dressed in unsuitable clothes. 

Most of the grounds common in Indian households were termed as ‘bad parenting’ by the Norwegian childcare authorities. 

The Bhattacharya never believed what had been done to their family was in their children’s best interests. They termed it as a ‘Child kidnapping in a civilized way’. 

Back in India, their kin also pleaded with the government to intervene in such a critical matter. 

After a diplomatic row between the two nations, the authorities in Norway concluded that Avirup’s brother should have custody of the children. 

This allowed Avirup to fly back to India with his children. However, by this time, tensions escalated between Sagarika and Avirup. 

In January 2013, the Calcutta High Court ruled in her favour, granting Sagarika the custody of her children Avigyan and Aishwarya. 

Expressing the joy of being finally united with her children, Mrs Bhattacharya said, “It is a huge relief, and I want to convey my regards to my well-wishers. My ordeal is finally over. I cannot express my emotions because I couldn’t meet my children for long. I pray to God that children can always stay with me.”

The reality behind Norway’s Barnevernet 

Over 12000 children were put under the care of Barnevernet, a controversial Norwegian child protection agency. Many accuse the Barnevernet of using unjustified reasons for removing children from their parents. 

A 3-year-old girl told the teacher about her dream influenced by the comic book character Hulk. The teacher reported it, the child was taken into custody, and the father was detained. She was returned to her family, but the case highlights this serious concern that children are being taken away without proper investigation. 

Why is this happening? 

Barnevernet outsources key services to nearly $250 million to the private sector. It claims that the number of children under its care has nothing to do with generating profit. 

One former contractor said, “It was never the intention to become rich, but we did. In the beginning, we were young and had an idealistic approach, but after a while, we saw our competitors taking out a good profit”.   

Out of 1.2 million children in Norway, 1 in 100 is in the Barnevernet system. Another worrying development is that immigrant children are more likely to be taken into the system than non-immigrants. 

Norway claims its legislation is based on “the best interest of the child” and that an order to take a child into custody is only issued in severe cases like violence, maltreatment, substance abuse, sexual abuse, physiological problems, etc.

However, the experts say that the problem is not the law but its implementation. 

Read more- Celebrate Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Birthday with his sublime Cinema of Colours.

In addition, a member of the European parliament wrote: Norway’s child protection agency, the Barnevernet, is an institution vested with unlimited powers and extra-legal authority that enable it to carry out forced confiscations and frame innocent parents.

According to the World Happiness Index, Norway is the sixth happiest country in the world, but can parents be sure that their children are safe in and from the system?  

The film Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is set to hit the theatres on 17 March 2023.

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