Norway custody row: Oslo ignores its own guidelines

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The Bhattacharyas in Norway have fresh hope. India and Norway have agreed that their toddler and baby should be in the care of the grandparents, and not with Norwegian foster families. Norway, while not budging on its stand that the parents have been deemed unfit parents, has finally recognised that grandparents can be a suitable alternative. That is what the couple and the Indian government had been urging them to recognise. And that is exactly what Oslo had been resisting till now.

Why it took Oslo eight months to get this is beyond me. This kind of child care terrorism frankly doesn't behove a country which was the first in the world to establish a child welfare act. Maybe they're guilty of too much academic thought on the subject of child welfare and too little practical knowledge. Those of us who have lived in joint families, or even vacationed for a month or two with them, know without a doubt that grandparents can provide the necessary family support, especially when frequent contact with biological parents is not possible.

What is truly perplexing is that even academic lessons have not been learnt properly by the authorities. Jan Storo, assistant professor at the Oslo University College, has written on foster care in Norway; and points out that the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs has issued guidelines for placing kids in foster care. These guidelines lay down that if someone is related through kinship with the child or in other ways has a close relationship with the child, they should be looked upon as the preferred choice - if they are judged as qualified in terms of the aforementioned criteria. In other words, the child welfare agency has been grossly negligent, wilfully or otherwise, in keeping the kids away from their grandparents until now. Maybe there's a case here for suing for damages. And while they are at it, Oslo would be doing no harm if it penalises someone for almost causing a diplomatic incident with India.

That's not to say that the Indian government has come out smelling of roses. Sure it intervened and the intervention appears to have worked but what was it doing for seven months? Our government gets so hot under the collar over a rude joke or two (after Jeremy Clarkson, it's Jay Leno's turn to have a stern finger wagged in his face) but doesn't think it worth its while to demand consular access to its citizens (a basic right of every citizen) for a whole seven months.