A group of retired judges from the Supreme Court and High Courts have written to the G-20 on the issue of Indian children removed from their parents’ care by state child protection agencies in western Europe, the United Kingdom, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The judges have asked the G-20 heads of state to initiate a discussion on this issue with a view towards a “compassionate solution” wherein the children would be repatriated to kinship care in their home countries.
Removed from parental care on the “grounds of abuse, neglect of harm”, these children of expatriate Indians, the judges’ letter stated, “are placed with foster carers who are native to the country of residence and without any ethnic or cultural links with the child’s country of origin. As a consequence, these children lose their identity and are unable to develop any bonds with their country of origin or their extended families. They age out of foster care in a state of double alienation — they are not citizens of the country of residence, and have no substantial ties with their country of origin.”
While noting that “it is not for India to question the assessment of parents by the country of residence,” the judges observed that “there does appear to be a need for better understanding of cultural differences and provision of good quality translators in child protection proceedings”.
Pointing out that “Indian children removed from parental care are the responsibility of the Government of India under international law,” the letter stated that “a return to a safe placement in the home country is a more humane and compassionate solution for such children, than leaving them in foreign state custody for the entirety of their childhoods”.
The letter also referred to cases in Norway and the U.S. where the Indian government had to intervene for the sake of Indian children confiscated from their parents abroad. It also pointed to ongoing cases with Germany, and the recent one in Australia, where a distraught Indian mother took her own life.
Signatories to the letter include Justice Ruma Pal, Justice Vikramajit Sen, Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Deepak Gupta, formerly of the Supreme Court of India; Justice A.P. Shah, who was Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, and Justice S. Muralidhar, who was Chief Justice of the High Court of Odisha; and Justice Manju Goel, Justice R.S. Sodhi and Justice R.V. Easwar, who were with the High Court of Delhi.
