New Delhi: A group of women parliamentarians met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday, urging him to intervene in a case concerning a child who has been placed in foster care in Germany since September 2021 over allegations of parental abuse, reported news agency PTI.
According to the agency, the child's mother Dhara Shah visited the Parliament on Tuesday to gather the support of parliamentarians to push for the release of her daughter from foster care in Germany.
The German authorities took over the custody of the child and placed her in foster care on September 23, 2021, after the child Ariha Shah, then seven months old, suffered an accidental injury.
Congress Rajya Sabha member Rajani Patil, NCP leaders Supriya Sule and Vandana Chavan, Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan and Shiv Sena (UBT) member Priyanka Chaturvedi met Jaishankar on Shah's behalf and sought the government's intervention in the matter.
"Due to cultural differences, they have taken a strict stand and we want to speak against that," Bachchan said.
She added, "We request the Indian government to bring the child and keep her in a foster home in India."
India has been maintaining that it is important for the child to be in her linguistic, religious, cultural, and social environment.
Last month, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said sending back the child to India is important for her cultural and national identity. "We urge German authorities to do all that is necessary to send Ariha to India at the earliest, which is also her inalienable right as an Indian national," Bagchi had said.
"Ariha’s continued placement in German foster care and infringement of her social, cultural and linguistic rights is of deep concern to the government of India and the parents," he added.
Jaishankar had raised the matter with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock when she visited India in December last year.