Indian article about Western child protectionThis article is from The Hindu, the Indian newspaper based in Chennai which at first covered
the Bhattacharya case in Stavanger very well (a very short summary in English
here), but whose correspondent in Europe then talked to the Norwegian children's ombudsman and the head of the child protection servies (CPS) in Stavanger, who apparently convinced her that the case concerned an 'attachment disorder' (the very frequent psychobabble accusation levelled at parents by our CPS).
However, The Hindu seems later to have at least in part come to their senses again. Here is a new article, by an associate professor of developmental psychology in Delhi and a professor of psychology in Aarhus, Denmark. As will be seen, it rightly takes in the child protection systems of the West in general, mentioning Britain, USA and Norway.
This article is published as an opinion by two psychologists, one working in India and one in Denmark. The most positive of all is to my mind how they describe the way the CPS takes the opportunity of 'diagnosing' any parent who protests or is upset by their actions, with some kind of 'disorder' or 'defect':
" Visiting care workers criticise their lifestyle and childcare practices. It is no wonder that parents become defensive, distant and even indignant. As a consequence, they are deemed uncooperative. An emotional outburst from a parent usually seals their fate — they are declared unfit for parenting."This was of course the way the CPS in Stavanger attacked Mrs Bhattacharya.
The only negative thing that might be said about the present article is that it focuses exclusively on culture differences, leaving out of consideration the fact that Western CPS agencies behave in the same atrocious manner to families of their majority cultures as well, making use of any accusations at all which serve their purpose, because their agenda is simply – be it explicit and conscious or not – to demonise parents in order to gain power over the children. Nevertheless, the article is very positive in contributing to waking up non-Western countries to the counter-productive activities of Western CPS.
Nandita Chaudhary and Jaan Valsiner:
Cultural sensibilities matter in parentingThe Hindu, 21 August 2015
"… before a family is tormented in this manner, abuse on the part of parents must be established beyond reasonable doubt. Otherwise, child protection services, originally conceived as guardians of human rights, become perpetrators of the very crimes that they are authorised to prevent.""There is adequate anthropological evidence to explain cultural differences in childcare practices, and there is no one method that can claim to be the perfect formula for raising children."