New Delhi, Dec. 28: The five-year-old Indian-origin boy, taken away from his parents by authorities in Oslo earlier this month, has become the face of a movement against the Norwegian child welfare services.
In a letter to foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, a group of 100 Norwegian and international activists – academics, lawyers, politicians and European parliamentarians – have backed her intervention in the case of Aryan who was taken away by Barnevernet, Norway’s child protection authorities, on December 13.
The letter states that Barnevernet «has for many years been wrongly taking children from loving parents in Norway. The reasons are incompetence, overbearing officials, lack of transparency, inadequate judicial oversight, and, in cases involving cultural and religious minorities, prejudice and racism».
This is an ongoing battle against the Barnevernet. This year alone, there have been protests every month in cities around Norway.
In February, there were protests at Norway’s embassies in the US and several European countries in reaction to a controversial case involving five children who were taken out of the care of their Norwegian/Romanian parents by Barnevernet.
In its letter to Swaraj, the group demanded immediate repatriation of Aryan, who is now with a foster family in Norway.
«Some of us have ourselves been victims of Barnevernet. We have been campaigning against Norway’s cruel child protection regime for years…. Supporting protests have been held in many countries around the world, including the United States of America, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Romania, Czechia (Czech Republic), Lithuania and India,» it said.
«We urge you to spare no effort in enabling the child of Anil Kumar and Gurvinderjit Kaur to be reunited with his family in Norway or repatriated to India where he can be brought up by his extended family in the country and culture of his origin, and to which he has been used since birth. This is his right under both Norwegian law and international law.»
Recently, a case involving a Czech family led to a major diplomatic row between Norway and the Czech Republic. Czech President Milos Zeman accused Norwegian social workers of acting like Nazis – an allegation the ministry for children described as absurd and unworthy of comment.
What the law states
The Norwegian Child Welfare Act (NCWA) is applicable to all parents living in Norway with their children, regardless of their residential status, religion and nationality.
Physical punishment of a child is completely illegal and schools are required to report such incidents to the government.
Barnevernet’s job is to conduct family investigations in case of child abuse. Barnevernet is an independent body and no ministers can instruct the board in decisions related to the welfare of child.
Every year nearly 53,000 such cases are handled by the child welfare service in Norway.
According to the Norwegian government, in more than 80 per cent cases where the child welfare service concludes that some kind of intervention is needed, they offer various kinds of assistance, help or guidance to the parents.
In 2014, around 43,000 families got assistance, help or guidance, while 9,611 children were removed – temporarily or permanently – from the custody of their parents.
According to data provided by the Norwegian government, the number of children removed from their parents rose by over 70 per cent between 2008 and 2013 – from 945 to 1,609. The most frequently cited reason for a care order now is «lack of parenting skills».
Aryan’s is the third case involving Indians in the last five years.
«It is just wonderful to see the Indian-Norwegian cooperation in order to stop human rights violations in this case as well as in general. Thank you to everyone, who supports our battle in defeating human rights crimes,» said the human rights activist and commentator, Marius Reikeras, who led the effort against Barnevernet from Norway.
Kilde: https://www.telegraphindia.com/1161229/jsp/nation/story_127409.jsp#.WGTFDB2UnqC
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