By Geeta Mohan: The Ministry of External Affairs today assured the return of baby Ariha Shah – who has been separated from her parents for 21 months – from a foster care facility in Germany’s Berlin to India.
Germany’s Child Services took the baby girl, a little over 2 years old, away on suspicion that she was being assaulted by the parents. But despite criminal charges being dropped as far back as February 2022, she has not been reunited with her parents, who are all Indians.
The Ministry of External Affairs said that “they have been persistently advocating for the return of Ariha Shah to India”.
“Our efforts have been guided by the best interests of the child, which we believe can be fully realised only when she is in her home country where her socio-cultural rights can be safeguarded. Accordingly, we have been requesting Germany to return the child to India. The Embassy has repeatedly requested German authorities to ensure that Ariha’s connection with her cultural, religious and linguistic background is not compromised and sought consular access to the child as well as cultural immersion at the Indian Cultural Centre in Berlin,” the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.
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“We urge the German authorities to do all that is necessary to send Ariha to India at the earliest, which is also her inalienable right as an Indian national. We remain committed to ensuring the return of Ariha Shah to India,” it added.
The statement comes after repeated requests by Ariha’s parents to seek a meeting with External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. The parents have been constantly meeting officials in India to intervene.
Meanwhile, German authorities have told India Today TV that they are in close contact with the Indian embassy in Berlin.
This is not the only such case in Germany, Turkey, Poland, Romania, among other nations have been battling cases of their citizens who have lost their children in a similar manner. What has the Indian government done so far and where should a country draw the line on cultural differences is the question here.
Ariha’s distraught and emotional mother, Dhara Shah, remembered late External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj amid her struggle to get her child back.
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“Sushma Swaraj, she was a mother. So she understood the pain of a mother. Even in the Opposition, she always supported this cause. She used to say, if the child is an Indian citizen, we know how to take care of our child, send our child back to India. This was her stand. I believe it has been 20 months. If the government of India intervenes, if Prime Minister Modi intervenes in this case, my daughter will get justice. She’s an Indian baby. She’s a Gujarati baby,” said Dhara with tears in her eyes.
“Many Indian parents have suffered these allegations and kids are removed from their custody. Every time when the prime minister of the country intervenes and talks to his counterpart, it helps,” she added.
How it all started
It all began when the child was taken to the hospital in September 2021 with an injury to her external perennial area or the outer genital area. She was hurt while playing with her toy.
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The first suspicion was that of sexual assault and the children’s services were called in. Upon investigation, assault was ruled out but charges of negligence were leveled against the parents. After a full investigation, the case was closed without charges.
The parents claim that the entire process is unfair and pre-decided. Since all their allegations turned out to be false, they are raising questions about parenting skills based entirely on Western culture without giving any weight to the way in which parents in non-Western societies express their love and concern for their children.
Interestingly, the report from agencies monitoring the visitations was in favour of the parents, where they recognised that the child calls Bhavesh and Dhara as dad and mom. Also, they recommended extending time by half an hour each time.
In fact, experts have also said the description of the injury in the Child Services Opinion contradicts the medical record and the statements of the pediatric gynecologist. “Ariha’s injury is highly likely to have been caused by accident… It is implausible that the parents intentionally inflicted injuries on the child and then repeatedly rushed her to the doctors.”
Now, what is underway in Germany is a custody battle for the child, the premise of which is “cultural difference” and parents not fit to take care of the child filed by German Child Services to terminate parental rights for Ariha.
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Similar cases in other countries
India is not the only country. In the recent past, Poland, Turkey, and Romania have also had similar cases.
The Turkish community in Germany, whose numbers make them society’s largest minority group, expressed its sorrow as the Jugendamt, Germany’s child welfare agency, took away their children with ‘made-up excuses’ leading to the destruction of many families.
Turkey has stepped up its efforts in family and social services work for the growing Turkish diaspora around the world, and YanÄñk recently announced that they would open the new diplomatic offices of the “family attache” to help Turkish families abroad.
Poland appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in August 2020 for a case where a 22-year-old woman was separated from her 3-year-old daughter, ignoring her Polish children’s rights and putting her in foster care. Poland managed to get the baby back.
In a scathing report, the special rapporteur of the UN acknowledged in a report that some of the practices used by the German Jugendamt fulfill the criteria of so-called “White torture”.
“The German Jugendamt (Youth Office) is an institution which has nearly illimited (unlimited) powers and is not bound by orders of the Family Courts. The Jugendamt and related professions generate income from children taken away from their parents and placed in foster families and homes. The number amounts to 52,590 cases per year (2018),” said the report.
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