Ariha Shah is a 14-month-old baby girl who was taken away from her biological Indian parents in September 2021 by German Foster care authorities.
The couple said Ariha’s grandmother hurt her by accident in September 2021. When they took the baby to a hospital, the couple said the German authorities accused them of sexual assault against the child and took her away from their care.
The parents continuously protested in front of the Indian embassy in Germany however no progress has been made in the past 18 months.
Parents are allowed to meet the daughter only once a month which, the German authorities want to reduce claiming that the child gets playful meeting her parents which tires her.
In December 2022 when the Indian and the German foreign ministers had a joint press conference in New Delhi, S. Jaishankar raised the issue of baby Ariha with his German counterpart saying, “We have concerns that the child should be in her linguistic, religious, cultural and social environment. This is her right. And our embassy is pursuing the matter with German authorities, but it was also a subject which I had brought up with the minister,”
Currently, the German authorities have denied Ahmedabad-based parents Bhavesh and Dhara Shah’s request to allow at least one parent to stay with their daughter Ariha in the foster home where the child is. The authorities denied the request as the foster homes did not have a place to host another person till August.
Dhara said in August that Ariha will complete two years in foster care and according to the German Principle of Continuity, if a child is in foster care for two years the child may not be returned to the parents as he/she will be unable to cope with the cultural shock.
Many netizens have taken over Twitter expressing their anger over Germany and German authorities who have deprived the Indian couple of parenthood.
Devastated to see German child services committing cultural genocide by separating Ariha from her Indian heritage. #BoycottGermany #SaveAriha @DrSJaishankar @OlafScholz @PMOIndia @MEAIndia @GermanyDiplo@aajtak @ABPNews @BBCIndia
@ABaerbock @melaniejoly @MOFAkr_eng pic.twitter.com/S3urX6OSto— Himanshu Hirpara (@HimanshuHirpara) February 23, 2023
Ariha’s parents now feel a ray of hope since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon be meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 25 & 26 in Delhi. The parents are said to be of the belief that if somehow PM Modi takes up the issue of Ariha, there might be some breakthrough in the case.
