Global Courant
ISTANBUL
When it came time for Ariha to say goodbye to her parents after an hour-long meeting last week, the toddler became restless.
He hurried around, visibly agitated, and beckoned to his parents to stay.
Her father, Bhavesh Shah, told Anadolu in a video interview, “When the 60 minutes are up and Ariha realizes that she has to put on her jacket and go, she starts running around.”
Every 20 days, Bhavesh and his wife Dhara spend an hour with their daughter at a designated location in Berlin.
This is because Ariha has been in a foster home in Germany since September 2021, when she was seven months old.
He was taken from his family by the German Youth Agency or Jugendamt, on charges of sexual abuse and later neglect at first.
The toddler’s case has become a diplomatic issue between India and Germany, and New Delhi has recently increased calls for Ariha’s repatriation, specifically referring to her “social, cultural and linguistic rights”.
Indian authorities have also offered to cooperate with German authorities to ensure that Ariha is placed in foster care in India.
According to the parents, a court in Germany is expected to make a decision on his detention on June 15.
“He has the right to come back to India with or without us. So please respect the rights of the child, respect the culture of the child,” said Dhara.
While Ariha’s case is receiving international attention for its diplomatic aspect, it is far from an anomaly that German social services separate young children from their families.
Data from the German statistical office Destatis show that youth agencies in the country “placed roughly 45,400 children and young people in temporary care” in 2020.
According to official figures, one in 10, or 11%, of these children are under the age of 3, while one-third, or 33%, are under the age of 12.
How did Ariha end up in foster care?
In 2018, Bhavesh got a job at a software company in Germany and the couple moved from India. Ariha was born three years later in Berlin.
“He is a firstborn and, you know, firstborn is always special,” Dhara remembered with a smile.
It was February 2021 and the couple was planning to return to India that year as Bhavesh’s work visa expires next year.
However, on that fateful day in September, their plans – and life as they know it – were turned upside down.
Ariha, who was seven months old at the time, was at home with her grandmother, who came from India.
When Bhavesh and Dhara returned, they noticed blood stains on the baby’s diaper and immediately took him to the pediatricians.
According to the couple, the doctor assured them that everything was fine and that there was no active bleeding, but advised them to go to the hospital for their own peace of mind.
Ariha was examined by multiple doctors at the hospital, who reassured the parents that they didn’t need to worry and said that the bleeding “could be a hormonal thing”.
When they went to the check-up four days later, the parents were told that Ariha had an external perineal injury, that is, an injury in the genital area.
While the parents were busy meeting with the doctors, the Jugendamt authorities took Ariha away without any explanation.
“We could never have imagined it, we would never have thought it would happen. It was terrible. It was a very difficult time for us. I was begging Dhara, Anatolia to give my daughter back.
Later, the couple learned through a lawyer that they had been accused of sexually abusing their children.
Parents have always vehemently denied the accusations.
After an investigation, the Shahs said they were cleared of sexual harassment charges in February 2022.
Instead, they were accused of negligence, and German authorities said Ariha would remain in foster care.
‘Accidental injury’
The parents are adamant that Ariha suffered an “accidental injury”.
Rumor has it that he was playing without a diaper left over from a diaper rash and hurt himself by sitting on one of his toys.
We waited a year for the hospital’s medical, he basically said the same thing, Dad said.
“The report said there was no diaper and must have been sitting on a sharp object, which was exacerbated by the grandmother’s actions,” she explained.
He added that the injury has gotten worse due to invasive examinations by doctors.
When planning their legal defense, the parents said they consulted various doctors and had samples from at least 35 similar accidental injury cases that had appeared in medical journals.
In December 2022, more than a year after Ariha was first placed in foster care, a German court appointed a psychologist to evaluate Bhavesh and Dhara.
According to the couple, the psychologist advised Ariha to stay with her parents in a parent-child facility where they would be provided assistance to develop their parenting skills.
The Shahs were in India last month to gather government support and reached out to various officials.
However, they hastily returned to Germany after learning that Ariha had moved from her home with an elderly German lady to a center for children with special needs.
The parents hope to get a positive court decision soon, but believe that Jugendamt will try to argue the principle of “continuity” and that moving Ariha to India will be a “culture shock” for her.
diplomatic discussion
India is pressing for the child’s return, emphasizing that “the child’s best interests … can only be fully realized when he is in his own country where his sociocultural rights can be protected”.
“We demand that Germany return the child to India. “Our embassy has repeatedly requested that the German authorities ensure that Ariha’s connection to our cultural, religious and linguistic background is not compromised,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said at a press conference earlier this month.
Unfortunately, our demands for the protection of Ariha’s national and cultural identity have not been met,” and her “social, cultural and linguistic rights” are being violated.
The child’s “nationality and sociocultural background are the most important determinants of where foster care will be provided,” he said.
“We urge the German authorities to do everything necessary to promptly return Ariha to India, which has the inalienable right as an Indian citizen,” the official said.
Bagchi said India had told German officials there were “potential foster parents in India willing to raise the child in their own socio-cultural environment”.
More than 50 parliamentarians wrote to the German ambassador in India demanding that the baby be returned to their country.
The issue was also brought up during the visit of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to India last December.
In a briefing to the media on 2 June, Bagchi said the senior German diplomat conveyed during the visit that “the German side … ‘has in mind the cultural identity of every child cared for by the youth offices in Germany'”.
Baerbock also spoke about Ariha in an interview with Indian newspaper The Hindu. He said the case “is in the hands of the competent German child welfare authorities … (which) is legally bound to put the best interests of the child first,” according to a transcript on the website of the German Foreign Ministry.
Otherwise, the German authorities remained silent about the case. The German Embassy in New Delhi declined to comment when contacted by Indian news sources and did not answer Anadolu’s questions.
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