Estranged girl, mum seek legalities behind adoption

In the wake of the statewide child trafficking racket, a mother who had abandoned her daughter 28 years ago and the daughter who was abandoned are both eager to find out whether the adoption of the estranged daughter by a childless Swedish couple was legal or not.

The daughter Suya, now known as Julia Gärdefäldt, was born on March 19, 1984 to a poor family from the south-western fringes of Kolkata. Her father Babu Biswas had abandoned her when she was four years old as she had tuberculosis. Being a mason, Babu Biswas was unable to pay for treatment and left her at an orphanage – Society For Indian Children's Welfare, Ashirwad, in south Kolkata. Julia lived in that orphanage for about two years before a Swedish couple adopted her and took her to Sweden with them.

Julia was the third of the four children of her parents. Her mother, Sandhya Biswas told DNA she would like to meet her daughter if possible. "Her father had left her at the orphanage because of her ailment. He had convinced me she would be taken care of at the orphanage and would be given proper medical attention. I had never imagined that she would go away to a far away counry. If she returns, we would like to find out who was responsible behind her adoption and whether it was done legally or not," she said. Sandhya, after the death of her husband, now lives with her brother Sahadeb Bor and her son Raju Biswas. The two other daughters have been married off.

Julia Gärdefäldt, on the other hand, told DNA over phone that she too was interested in returning and finding out the facts. "Along with the legal aspect of my adoption, I would also want to meet my biological parents who had abandoned me for an ailment," she said.

She was taken to Lyseki, a small town on the Swedish West Coast and later in Örebro initially in 1990. "I don't want to name my adoptive parents my adoptive father left me and my adoptive mother. I have grown up feeling unwanted because I have been abandoned thrice – once by my biological father, then by my adoptive father and the third time by the person I had fallen in love with. I even gave birth to his child in 2010," she said. Gärdefäldt at the moment lives with her daughter Antonia and is living out of a health insurance.

Sandhya, with the help of an NGO, had earlier spoken to Gärdefäldt via a video conference. But the conversation did not last long owing to the language barrier. "She is unable to speak in Hindi or Bengali, and I cannot speak or understand English. There was an interpreter who helped us," Sandhya said.