Agencies/New Delhi
Two Indian children at the centre of an international custody row returned to New Delhi yesterday to be cared for by an uncle one year after authorities in Norway removed them from their parents. The case drew widespread attention in India, much of it critical of the Norwegian social welfare officials amid a debate about different cultural attitudes to childcare. The Indian parents, who live in Norway, claimed their children, now aged four and two, had been taken away due to disapproval over feeding them by hand and sharing the same bed - common practices in India. The external affairs ministry took up the issue with the Norwegian government, but the father of the children later said the children had been removed partly due to his wife suffering serious psychological problems.
The children arrived in New Delhi, greeted by an unruly media scrum and senior government figures. “We are all here to welcome them,” Minister of Sate for External Affairs Preneet Kaur told reporters at the airport. A court in Norway on Monday had ruled that putting Abhigyan and Aishwarya in the care of their uncle in India would “make up for the parents’ shortcomings in terms of childcare.” Their grandparents received them at the airport and were reported to be taking them to the family home in Kolkata. “The kids belong to India... I am confident that the uncle will take care of them in the environment of their extended family in India,” External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said in a video statement. The grandparents expressed happiness at the return of the children and lauded the government’s efforts in bringing them back home.Ajay Bhattacharya, the paternal grandfather of the children, thanked the government for its “unbelievable help” in getting them back.“We had lost all hope of getting the children back. It is all because of the efforts of the government that the children are back. I am so happy and proud. We hope the children will now have a peaceful and a normal childhood when they return to Kolkata,” he said.Monotosh Chakrabarty, the maternal grandfather, hoped for a settlement of the marital discord between the parents Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya.“Sagarika is happy on their return but is pained that her children are not with her. I sincerely hope that whatever dispute is there between the couple is settled quickly so that the kids can get love and care from both their parents,” said Sagarika’a father in Kolkata.Sagarika who according to Chakrabarty was at a relative’s home in Kolkata, posted a comment on a social networking site after the children landed in the country.“I do not know how my children are, but always pray to God that they should be well in future,” she wrote conveying her regards to government and those who stood up to bring the children back.