An international movement cutting across ideological lines emerged on Wednesday supporting India’s claim seeking the return of a child to his Indo-Norwegian parents. Activists from Norway, U.S., Australia blamed Norway’s child welfare agency, Barnevernet, of violating human rights and came out in support of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
The international movement which has gone viral on various social networks began a day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced on the social media platform Twitter that the child should be restored to his parents.
“I refuse to accept that foster parents can take better care of the child than the natural parents,” said Ms. Swaraj, arguing that Norwegian foster parents were ignorant of the child’s food habits.
Apart from activists, families that were targeted by the child protection agency also came out in support of Ms. Swaraj.
“I am appealing to Your Excellency to intervene for the protection of the five-year-old boy, the only child of Anil Kumar and Gurvinderjit Kaur, who was removed by Barnevernet, Norway, from his pre-school, where his parents had left him in total confidence for his safety,” said Ruby Harold Claesson, president of Nordic Committee for Human Rights in a letter to Ms. Swaraj, criticising the manner in which the child, Aryan was taken away from his family.
The committee’s support came within hours of a major online campaign launched by the activists across the world.
