A group of activists, jurists and academics, including retired High Court Chief Justices A.P. Shah and Mukul Mudgal and former Rajya Sabha MP, Brinda Karat, on Thursday gave a petition to the U.S. Ambassador, Nancy J. Powell, urging for an early repatriation of the one-year old child, who has been in foster care in the U.S. for alleged mistreatment by his parents.
Complaining that the child had been repeatedly injured and had suffered medical emergencies in foster care, the petitioners stressed that he was being deprived of the affection of his family back in India for no fault of his.
“The Government of India has [also] formally demanded the repatriation of Baby Indrashish and given the U.S. authorities a report assessing Indrashish’s family members in India to be fit to care for him. But, despite the lapse of over four months, U.S. authorities have failed to give any commitment on when Baby Indrashish will be returned,” the petition said.
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The petitioners also noted that the foster carers have limited the medical examination on a cyst that had been discovered in the baby’s brain to the insurance paid examinations prescribed in the foster system instead of taking the baby for a diversity of specialist assessments or taking expert second opinions.
The issue of quicker repatriation, they said, required urgent consideration since if the baby were to remain in foster for over 12 months, U.S. authorities could put him for adoption, even though his parents were still contesting his confiscation.
The petition was signed by former Chairperson of National Commission for Women, Mohini Giri, and activists Sudha Sundararaman, Suranya Aiyer and Kalyani Menon-Sen, Rita Panicker, Annie Raja, Janaki Rajaram, Sehba Farooqui, and Leila Passah among others.
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