MEA requested to help repatriate toddler held by Child Protection Services in Berlin (2024)

ByVinay Dalvi

Mumbai: Anxiously waiting for the custody of their three-year-old daughter, who has been held up in a foster home in Berlin following suspected abuse, an Ahmedabad-based couple on Thursday requested the ministry of external affairs (MEA) to expedite the process of repatriating the child.

The couple – Dhara Shah and her husband Bhavesh Shah – spoke to the media in Grant Road on Thursday. The Jain community body, Shree Mumbai Jain Sangathan, is also backing them in their fight to bring back their three-old-daughter, Ariha Shah.

Narrating the entire episode, Dhara said that in September 2021 when they were in Berlin, they had noticed an injury to their daughter’s genitals. The child was eighteen months old at that time. “We immediately took her to a doctor. She was treated and later when we again went to the doctor, we found Child Protection Services officers also present in the hospital, who took custody of the child from us,” said Dhara with tears in her eyes.

She said that since then, the couple had been running from pillar to post to get the custody of their daughter back. “We tried explaining to the authorities that the child was with her grandmother, and it was an accidental injury, probably caused while playing. However, they were in no mood to listen. Later, the doctors from the Berlin hospital even submitted a report that there was no sexual assault on the child,” said Dhara, whose husband was working as a software engineer at that time in Berlin.

Despite the hospital report as well as a report by the public prosecutor that no trial could be conducted based on suspicion, the Child Services moved the district court in Berlin for parental rights termination, saying that the child’s welfare was in danger.

“The matter was heard for the first time in February this year in the district court in Berlin, and the next date for hearing is in May 2023. However, after our follow-up, it has been preponed to later this month,” said Bhavesh, who is presently jobless.

“Our daughter has been in a foster home for over a year now. Earlier we were allowed to meet her every week. Now they are saying we can meet her only once a month. We are a very traditional and conservative Jain family and our child is missing out on our culture, ethics and traditions for no fault of hers. She is unable to speak our language, as she has been with the Child Services for so long. We have met several MEA officials and requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into the issue at the earliest and help get our daughter back,” said Bhavesh.

“Our entire community is supporting them whole-heartedly. We are going next week to New Delhi to meet MEA officers,” said Nitin Bora, convenor of the Shree Mumbai Jain Sangathan. Bora added that the central government needed to take a tough stand on the issue. “The family has already spent more than ₹60 lakh to get custody of their daughter, and henceforth we will support them,” he said.

In November 2022, the family had even protested outside the German embassy in New Delhi. They were then promised by the central authorities that they would look into the issue, but the process needed to be expedited, said the couple.

The family fears that Child Services is unnecessarily prolonging the matter to take advantage of the ‘continuity principle’ in child law, under which the child is said to be settled with the state-appointed caregiver if it spends significant time with the latter. It then cannot be shifted back to its parents even if they are subsequently found to be fit to take care of it.

Sagarika Bhattacharya, who put up a long fight with the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS), is supporting the couple and guiding them on what needs to be done to regain custody of their child. In May 2011, the Norwegian CWS had taken over the custody of Bhattacharya’s children, Abhigyan and Aishwarya, citing ‘neglect’ and ‘emotional disconnect’ between the mother and children.