Reunion of Indian Adoptee

“At 68, Sadhana Debnath had reconciled to whatever life had offered. After a lifetime of hardship, the widow from a nondescript Nadia village, about 65km from Kolkata, had no reason to expect anything great in her twilight years. But, a storm blew from across the seven seas a few days ago bringing the news that her daughter, who she thought was dead, was searching for her desperately.

Since then Sadhana has known neither sleep nor hunger, waiting for her daughter, who was separated from her 32 years ago.

Sadhana had delivered her fourth child, a girl, in 1981, 21 days after her husband Gouranga died. The grieving widow had no means to raise another child. At the behest of her in-laws, she handed over the baby to her elder sister Kamala Nath of Barrackpore. Though Kamala had agreed to take care of the newborn, she herself was struggling to feed her own children from her wages as a hospital ayah.

She left the four-month-old baby at the orphanage Terres Des Hommes in Kolkata, which gave her for adoption to a Swiss couple.

“My sister told me that my daughter Sona died soon after birth. All these years, I had almost reconciled to the fact that my daughter was dead,” Sadhana told TOI in Nagarukra village of Haringhata.

Sona was being raised on the outskirts of Zurich by a German couple. But, a few years later, her foster parents got separated and her father became her sole custodian. As she grew up, Sona learnt that she was adopted, that her biological father was dead but her mother was alive.

Now married to a Sri Lankan, Sona is a mother of three and works as a teacher in Zurich. She gave birth to her first child in 2001. A year later, she flew down to Kolkata with her husband in search of her mother but failed to meet her.

“Sixteen months ago, she got in touch with my friend Arun Dhole, who works for the Brussels-based NGO ‘Against Child Trafficking’. Since then, Arun and I have been trying to help her,” said Anjali Pawar of the Pune-based NGO, Sathee.

Incidentally, Dhole was also given for adoption in Germany and finally traced his biological parents in Maharashtra.

Pawar and Dhole got in touch with a Bengali daily in July this year along with the piece of paper signed by Kamala Nath, which the duo obtained from Terres Des Hommes. When schoolteacher Narayani Debnath, who is Sadhana’s neighbour, came across the article, the name Kamala rang a bell. She rushed to Sadhana and inquired if her fourth child had really died. Sadhana confronted her elder sister, who admitted the child was given away for adoption. With the help of Pawar and Dhole, Sadhana spoke to Sona over the phone last Saturday.

“Though Sona speaks a language I do not understand, I instantly knew that she is my daughter the moment she called me ‘ma’ on the phone,” Sadhana told TOI.

Dhole is flying to Germany on August 17 with a DNA sample taken from Sadhana to confirm the relationship. “Sona is excited at the prospect of getting reunited with her mother. She will fly down to Bengal the DNA reports arrive,” said Pawar.”

Given up for dead, Swiss woman to meet Nadia mother

[The Times of India 8/15/13 by Sumati Yengkhom]

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