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Is Norway child services right in removing these young Indian children from the care of their parents?
I was shocked to hear about this Indian couple’s plight in Norway after their two children were taken away by the child welfare services.
I strongly feel that taking away children from their biological parents should be done as a last resort to solve a problem. Even if the parents have some shortcomings can’t the child welfare services arrange for some counseling and give the parents, especially the mom, some training to be a better parent?
Though I don’t know all the background, from whatever information that is available it doesn’t look like the mother was really abusing the children physically or emotionally. Most of the shortcomings listed here look like cultural differences and could have been rectified with some help from their experts. I am quite surprised to see that the child welfare services are very adamant to take the children away from their parents.
I am an adoptive mother and I have seen enough research to state that biological parenting should be given the most priority before foster care and adoption are even considered. I can give ample references from adoptees, children from foster homes and researchers that removing children from their biological parents should be the last resort.
According to the child welfare services they are placing the children in foster care because the mother is not able to “maintain” the children’s emotional needs. I ask the child welfare services the following questions:
The Norwegian child welfare services might think that they are doing the services in the best interest of the child. This case came to my attention only because the couple involved is Indian and it is being discussed in the Indian media. But I am terrified to even think how many families in Norway are affected by these hasty decisions of the child welfare services and their courts.
If Norway and their child welfare services are so strict, should they be first concentrating on setting up counseling services for parents or arrange for training sessions for parents to become better parents?
I really don’t think that whatever they are trying to do is in any way in the best interest of the children. Hope the child services can see their own haste and shortcomings in their findings and come to an agreement with the biological parents so that the best interest of the child is taken into consideration.
Author Bio: Brindha Kannan is a software professional turned home-maker who is also an adoptive mother to two daughters. She can be contacted at [email protected]
*Photo credit: Vale (Used under the Creative Commons Attribution License)
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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