Sarita Skagnes Biography 
Sarita Skagnes is a Norwegian author of Indian origin. Her autobiography work Bare en datter (2008) has been translated to many languages. Born as an unwanted girl child in an Indian family, she was exchanged with her cousin by her parents. A true victim of gender discrimination in India, she later worked with several NGOs for the uplift of girl children in the society. She is a lecturer and social activist too who works for girl kids. All the royalties of her written book goes directly to the Help-fund. She is married to Norwegian man Alex Skagnes, who supports her in her struggle to find a girl’s rights.
Her maiden family is Satwant Kaur and she was born into a Punjabi family who hated girl kids. She was born as the third child to her family and her father even tried to kill her. As an unwanted member she was exchanged for her male cousin by her parents. But she had to spend a servant’s life facing physical and verbal abuse and also struggled to find her identity. She was beaten severely by her aunt since the age of 4 or 5 if the assigned jobs are not completed properly. She grew up in India when her parents and both sisters moved to Norway soon after Sarita was exchanged at the age of 2 or 3. She never attended school regularly as she had to do household works since very young.
She doesn’t remember when she was exchanged for her cousin. She was often beaten at school saying ‘Nalayak’ for being unpunctual. She quit school at the age of 12 to look after her old grandparents. A son was born to her parents when she was 9 and her mother never showed love towards her. It was for the first time she met her real parents in her life. Pleaded by her grandmother when her father came to India, Sarita moved to Norway at the age of 16. Her mother was not allowed to show love to her girl kids by her father, and during Sarita’s short stay with her parents she shared a tense relationship.
At the age of 19 she met her future husband, Alex Skagnes. She married him one year later against her parents’ wish and moved to Sweden. Since then she worked with many charity organizations to help girl children of her home country, India. She also completed her school education after marriage. The couple started a help-fund called Fund for Higher Education of Girls in India. She is a lecturer and political advisor who delivers speeches across the globe on women rights. Through her autobiography, which is a work on women empowerment she challenged gender inequality and became influential in affecting political action. Sarita was awarded several awards for her work.
Published: N/A
Updated: June 19, 2016
