An Indian couple have had their children taken away by Norwegian social workers because they were feeding them with their hands and sleeping in the same bed as them.
Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya lost custody of their three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter eight months ago after authorities branded their behaviour inappropriate.
The drastic measure led to intervention from the Indian government who contacted Norwegian authorities in an a desperate attempt to return the children.
Norwegian Child Protection Services removed the youngsters from their home in May, 2011, leaving their parents horrified with the outcome of the report.
Father Anurup told Indian television channel NDTV: ‘They told me ”why are you sleeping with the children in the same bed?’’.
‘(I told them) this is also a purely cultural issue. We never leave the children in another room and say goodnight to them.’
Anurup added: ‘Feeding a child with the hand is normal in Indian tradition and when the mother is feeding with a spoon there could be phases when she was overfeeding the child.
‘They said it was force feeding. These are basically cultural differences.’
Mrs Bhattacharya said: ‘My son was sleeping with my husband. They said he should sleep separately from your son.’
The parents have been told that they can only see their children twice a year, for an hour during each visit until the kids turn 18 when they will no longer be bound by the current restrictions under current Norwegian law.
Despite the Indian government’s intervention, Norwegian officials are refusing to meet the request for any further explanation.
The Norwegian government has taken these people’s children and now will not allow them to see each other, over simple xenophobia. Absolutely tragic.
what the fuck?
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.
Wow
this is fucking bull
everyone RELAX. nothing about the link/the primary sources seems legitimate. yes, I know this really happened (confirmed by the times of india) but the entire story hasn’t even unfolded yet. we’re only getting ONE side of the story because norway has not yet commented. if this is true then YES it’s unfortunate and then everyone can get pissed. but right now.. let’s use some common sense: norway is a developed country and social services cannot just barge into someone’s home without a complaint or a reason. before these kids were taken away, these parents were observed for some time. I’m brown too so I get it—BROWN POWER w/e w/e but nothing is certain yet. if it’s as one-sided as the article makes it seem, then I’ll be upset right along you guys. but until then, THINK PEOPLE.
