A three-year-old might dwarf the upcoming visit of German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius to India next week. Pistorius, who is expected to arrive in India on June 6 to help seal the Rs 50,000 crore submarine manufacturing deal for India, is likely to feel the heat from his government’s handling of the Ariha Shah case.
The ministry of external affairs had expressed dismay over the shifting of Ariha, an infant who was removed from the custody of her parents when she was just seven months old in September 2021, to another foster care.
When the child sustained an accidental injury in her perineum, she was hospitalised and taken away from her parents to be put in the German foster case system. “The ministry of external affairs and the Embassy of India, Berlin, have been persistently advocating for the return of Ariha Shah to India,’’ Arindam Bagchi, the external affairs spokesperson said at the weekly briefing. “The child is an Indian national and was placed in the custody of Germany’s Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) on September 23, 2021, when she was seven months old. She has now been in foster care for more than 20 months.”
Her case has emerged as an emotive issue—one that has been brought up with the German government at the highest level. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had raised the issue when the German foreign minister visited in December 2022. At a press conference, Jaishankar said, “There is a case related to a child called Ariha Shah. We have concerns that she should be in her linguistic, religious, cultural, and social environment. This is her right.’’
While India has been closely following up on the case—and has so far chosen to deal with this sensitive matter rather delicately—the MEA statement on Friday was strongly worded. “We are dismayed to learn that the child was abruptly shifted away from her current foster parent to a specialised foster care arrangement,’’ said Bagchi.
“The manner in which this shift was carried out is a matter of concern. We and the parents believe that this rapid change is not in the child’s best interest and could have far-reaching consequences for her emotional and mental development.”
This is not the first time that such a case has emerged. The Rani Mukherjee-starrer Bollywood movie, Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, revolved around another such case that became a diplomatic issue between India and Norway. With the parents of Ariha in Delhi trying to generate awareness about their plight, this too, is likely to be a prickly matter.
Nineteen MPs have also written to the German ambassador asking for his help to bring the child back to India. The letter signed by MP John Brittas, pointed out the cultural divide, as the child belonged to Jain parents and was being raised in a non-vegetarian house.
"Our efforts have been guided by the best interests of the child, which we believe can be fully realised only when she is in her home country where her socio-cultural rights can be safeguarded," asserted Bagchi. "Accordingly, we have been requesting Germany to return the child to India. The embassy has repeatedly requested German authorities to ensure that Ariha’s connection with her cultural, religious and linguistic background is not compromised and sought consular access to the child as well as cultural immersion at the Indian Cultural Centre in Berlin."
German Foreign Minister H.E. Ms Annalena Baerbock, during her visit to India, had also conveyed that the German side was “also bearing in mind the cultural identity of each child that is taken care of by the youth offices in Germany.”
“Unfortunately our requests in this regard for safeguarding Ariha’s national and cultural identity have not been met," Bagchi said.
