Category: Other Countries

The Myth of Scandinavian “Happiness” and How Children Pay the Price For Radical Feminism by Mrutyuanjai Mishra

Regardless of where you stand on child protection agencies, with thousands of children being torn annually from their parents in Scandinavian countries, they can hardly claim to be the “happiest” in the world. Do we really have in Scandinavia a unique and historic case of parental dysfunction? Or are parents being misjudged by their system?
In this article, Denmark-based Indian journalist Mrutyuanjai Mishra claims that Scandinavia’s social welfare agencies are causing a human rights crisis with the systematic wrongful removal of children from parents. He argues that this state-sponsored child snatching is driven by an aggressive version of feminism that views the family as an outdated patriarchal institution which oppresses children who need to be “saved” by being removed from their parents. But the result has been the unfair targeting of the poor, the uneducated, migrants and, recently, fathers in general.

Is Attachment Theory Always Reliable as a Measure of Child Welfare? by Nandita Chaudhary and Heidi Keller

Professors Nandita Chaudhary and Heidi Keller question the application of Attachment Theory in the field of child development. They point out various settings in which the universalising methods and practices of Attachment Theory would not apply and would lead to an incorrect evaluation of there being attachment failure between a parent and child. This paper has important insights for child protection as Attachment Theory is a key tenet of modern child protection thinking. Child protection agencies are removing babies and toddlers by judging the attachment with a parent (usually the mother) to have ‘failed’ even where there is no actual evidence of harm to the child.

India Should Not Adopt A Western-Style Child Protection System by Joe Burns

Joe Burns is a prominent international activist and critic of Western Child Protection Services (CPS) from the Republic of Ireland. Over the last decade he has helped numerous innocent families, including many Indian ones, facing persecution by European child protection agencies. Read on for why Joe Burns warns India to develop her own child protection system and not adopt the Western one which is, in fact, abusing children in the name of child protection.

The Brutal History of Child Confiscation by the State by Cristina Nicoli

In this gripping essay, Cristina Nicoli, an Australian of Romanian origin, traces Norway’s notorious child confiscation practices to historical instances of state-sponsored child removal. A grotesque picture emerges of brutal episodes of forced child removal over the last century all over the Western world, and its colonies, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, whether in the name of racial cleansing, or educating, ‘civilising’, integrating, or politically indoctrinating children.

EU Plays Soft Empire Games With Global Child Rights by Dr. Kaustav Bhattacharyya

Dr. Kaustav Bhattacharyya presents international “standards-setting” as a tactic by the European Union (EU) for exerting influence around the world. He argues that child welfare measures and best practices are an important tool in the EU’s exercise of “soft” empire. Dr.  Bhattacharyya cautions that we in India should not blindly adopt the EU’s universalizing measures in child policy as research is showing that they have resulted in discrimination against immigrants, marginalized communities and ethnic minorities.