What Our Embassies Owe Indian Mothers Abroad

Source: The post is based on the article “What Our Embassies Owe Indian Mothers Abroad” published in The Times of India on 8^th April 2023.

Syllabus: GS 2 – Indian Diaspora

Relevance: concerns associated with Indian parents in Europe

News: Indian families in European countries often face problems with their child being taken away by the child protection services (CPS). The children are put in foster care giving the reason that parents are unable to look after the child.

What is the recent case about?

A seven-month-old daughter was taken away from her parents in September 2021 by CPS in Germany because the baby suffered an injury in the perineum, the sensitive area between the vagina and the anus.

The family provided the explanation of the injury but it was rejected. The baby was put into foster care.

In February 2022, after a full investigation, police closed the case. But the baby was not restored to her parents.

Now, since CPS has not been able to prove charges of sexual abuse, it is trying to prove that the parents, especially the mother, are incapable of looking after their baby.

The parents’ plea that the child is being deprived of her religion and culture has been dismissed by CPS as being irrelevant.  Even the visiting hours of parents to their child in the foster have been cut.

CPS is pushing for the child to remain permanently in German foster care. In their opinion, the child will be unsafe if she returns to India.

The court has provided a window to the parents, the government and CPS to work out an agreement before the next scheduled hearing in May.

How has the Indian authority responded?

Usually, the Indian Embassy does not intervene in the cases which involve criminal charges like that of sexual abuse.

However, since the criminal charges have been taken away, it was required by the Indian Embassy to intervene into the matter.

The intervention of the foreign ministry is absolutely crucial in this case as the court has provided a window of agreement.

Further, only an official governmental intervention at the highest level brought babies’ back to their parents in the previous cases.

For example, Aryan came back to his parents in Norway in 2016 with the help of then Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and in 2011-12, the government intervention helped Sagarika to get her child back from foster care in Norway.

Therefore, the government must take urgent and required measures to bring the baby back to her parents and help other parents who are trapped in such cases.