By: GRATIATPosted on

An Indian couple whose daughter was taken away by German child services has sought the help of the Indian government to get their child back.

The parents of Ariha Shah on Thursday urged Foreign minister S Jaishankar and PM Narendra Modi to help bring their daughter back to India.

ANI

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What happened to baby Ariha Shah?

The girl, who is now three years old, has been in the custody of German authorities for the last one-and-a-half years.

She was taken away by German child services after a doctor reported a suspected sexual assault on her.

“In September 2021, our daughter was taken away by German child services. She accidentally hurt her private part and we took her to a doctor. The doctors sent us back saying that she was fine. Then we went for a follow-up check. My daughter was again said to be fine, but the doctors, this time, called child services and gave them my daughter’s custody. And we later learned that because of the nature of her injury, they suspected sexual abuse,” the girl’s mother said.

Parents may lose their daughter

permanently

According to her, the couple could not get their daughter back despite being cleared of the allegations and the case closed.

And now they are at risk of losing her permanently as the German child services have opened a case against them for the termination of the child’s custody.

“We went to court for that/. The court ordered that we have to make a parental ability report. We got the 150-page parental ability test report after a year, during which the psychologist spoke to us for only 12 hours. We got the next trial date after receiving the report. The report suggested the bond between the parents and the child is very strong and the child should return to the parents, but the parents don’t know how to bring up the child. For that, we should stay in a family house till the girl attains the age of 3 to 6 years,” the girl’s father said.

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Only allowed to meet once a month

“They reasoned that we let her eat as much as they want, let her play like she wants, and they don’t discipline her enough. They also mentioned that the child has an attachment disorder. They alleged that the attachment disorder was because the child wanted to do things by herself,” he said further.

Not allowing to teach her Hindi/Gujarati

The parents, who are only allowed to meet the girl for an hour every month under the supervision of a social worker, said they want to bring their daughter back to India while the case is being heard.

“We asked them to let the child come to India since the court case was going to last long. They said that they cannot send her to India as she does not know any Indian language, which can result in trauma. We have been asking them to let us teach her at least one Indian language. A teacher, a volunteer or a mentor is also not needed. Our friends and family could easily do that. There were many Indians in Germany who were ready to volunteer to teach her Hindi or Gujarati, but they refused,” the father said.

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“We have been saying that she is an Indian baby; she must know an Indian language and acquire cultural knowledge. We also demanded consular access for her. Criminals also get consular access, but our daughter is being treated worse than a criminal,” the mother added.

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