Thaindian News

New Delhi/Kolkata, Jan 25 (IANS) The ordeal of two Indian children in Norway, who were snatched from their NRI parents and put in foster care by Norwegian authorities, is set to end following intense pressure by the Indian government.

An agreement was inked between the Indian government through its mission in Norway, Norwegian Childcare Services and the parents, Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, an NRI couple living in Stavanger, Norway.

Under the pact, the parents’ lawyer named Anurup’s brother Arunabhash Bhattacharya as the primary caretaker of the two children, Abhigyan (3) and Aishwarya (one year old), official sources said here.

Indian ambassador to Norway R.K. Tyagi called up Anurup with the happy news, Sagarika’s father Monotosh Chakraborty told IANS in Kolkata. “It is an out of court settlement. We are very happy. It will take some time,” said Chakraborty.

After their traumatic experience, Chakraborty and his wife Shikha now want their daughter Sagarika and grand children to return to India. “They will come back. And I won’t let them to go back. My son-in-law will stay back in Norway for about a month to complete the resignation procedures,” said Chakraborty. Anurup, an alumnus from IIT, Kharagpur, works as a geo-scientist with American multinational oil firm Halliburton.

The agreement came a couple of days after External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna spoke to his Norwegian counterpart and stressed that Oslo should work out a settlement with the immediate family of the two kids who are now in foster care on the orders of a local court there.

Anurp’s brother Arunabhash has agreed to the parents’ wish and is aware of the responsibilities that go with being the children’s primary caretaker, the sources said. The parents will, however, have parental and visitation rights, said the sources.

The Kolkata-based Arunabhash will soon leave for Norway and all the expenses of his travel will be borne by the government.

The parents have also agreed to provide information in response to any inquiry by Norway’s family and child welfare ministry.

Abhigyan and Aishwarya, were taken under protective care by Barnevarne (Norwegian Child Welfare Services) in May last year on grounds that they were not looked after properly by their parents and later placed under foster paternal care as per the directive of the local Norwegian court.

“They have now agreed to return the babies to Arunabhash who has to first get well acquainted with the children for two-three days,” Anurup told IANS from Norway.

“Only we know what we have gone through over the past eight months. Every day was a struggle. We had to fight three court cases. This morning after we got the good news, we have been only crying and crying,” he said.

“We have not seen our children for over two months. Earlier they agreed to let us see them once a week. Later, the court curtailed our right to two sessions a year. I don’t want to stay in Norway. I have some liabilities. I will sell off the house I purchased and leave my job and go back to India,” he said.

“The foster mother has told us that our son is in trauma. He is panic stricken. He shivers. He only sits close to his sister. And once they come back, we have to first cure his trauma,” Anurup said.

Following appeals for help by parents, India had issued a couple of strong demarche to Norway and made it clear that the decision of the Norwegian Childcare Services to separate two children from their NRI parents was an extreme step and unjustified.

Stressing respect for cultural values, the Indian government had said it “is concerned that there may have been insufficient regard paid to the undoubted benefits of bringing up the children in their own ethnic, religious cultural and linguistic milieu while putting them in foster care”.

The government stressed that the children be allowed to return to India so that they can be brought up in familiar surroundings in the loving care of their extended family.