Recently, there was a case filed against an Indian couple who are living in Stavanger, Norway by the Child Protection Services (CPS) which is considered to be one of the powerful authority in the country. To give the background about them, Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya of Kolkata shifted to Norway for work where Anurup is a Geo-Scientist and Sagarika is a homemaker. They have 2 kids - a 3 year old son and a 1 year old daughter.
The reason for filing a case against this Indian couple was really very silly. It says - that the couple was found:
1. Sleeping with their 2 small kids.
2. Feeding their kids for food.
3. They don't have enough toys for the kids to make them happy.
Don't find it strange and but its a real bitter truth. According to the CPS regulations in Norway all the above mentioned behavior are illegal and against the child protection. Now let me take each of these points and put my thoughts on that:
1. Sleeping with a 3 year old boy and a just born 1 year girl:
When first time I read this news, I was absolutely aghast and I actually read this statement twice to confirm that its not a typo error - whether the editor has forgotten to put zeros in (after) their age. But I was wrong and the news was right. I am still not able to figure it out what the Norwegian govt. has thought while making this regulation as a part of CPS. In India, parents still sleep with with their teenager kids and there can be various reasons for this - be it the way they want to show their love or the bonding they have, or space constraints in the house etc. And here we are talking about 2 really small kidos. The point here is, whats the real meaning in making a case against someone who is sleeping with their just born kids. If they leave such small kids in some other room (during the night time) and something goes wrong in the middle of night who will be held responsible for this? Surely not the govt. who is making this rule. In fact, that time there will be another case from the same govt. against these parents that they are not good enough to take care of the children.
2. Feeding the kids for food with their hands:
The rule says - "Its a forceful feeding and there is a chance that the child has been over-feeded by the parent".
Now my question is if they don't feed their own kid, then shall we expect some neighborhood who should come and ask if they need a help in feeding the kid? I would like to ask this question to govt. of the country how they have been bought up by their parents - were they old enough to manage their food and livings on their own from the very first year. Not sure what kindda answer they will give on this statement. Boss, lets not fool the country and the world!
3.They don't have enough fancy toys for their kids to make them happy:
If I don't have enough money to buy fancy toys for my kid, may I request the govt. of the country to please help me and my family by providing the kind of toys they are thinking every child should have. In my view, all the parents try their best to give maximum things to their kids - toys, clothes, education etc. It depends on the financial status of the family on the varieties and kind of toys they can afford. I am pretty sure every child in this world must have played with sufficient toys in their playing age and only difference as I mentioned is the quality, variety and royalty (which obviously depends on the family background). There is no measure of these things in life and the more parents give, the less will it be for the outer world.
The story of filing the case doesn't ends here. After filing the case, the CPS has taken away the custody of the kinds from this innocent couple and handed over to the fosters home. Oh god, what will be the feeling of these parents and the kids who were forced to go away from them without taking their consult. The case is still going and dragging and there is no clue where it will end. Till then parents are living in the nightmare and the kids are left solitary.
In my view, these regulations are obsolete, irrelevant and vague from any aspect of regulations. The Indian govt. should come forward and help the family to come out of this mess !
