India has taken up with Norway the issue of an NRI couple whose children have been placed under foster parental care by the local authorities there on grounds of an “emotional disconnect” between the children and their parents.

On May 11, two-and-a-half-year-old Abhigyan and four-month-old Aishwarya were taken away from their parents — Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya — by Norway’s child selfare services, Barnevarne.

A local court on November 30 ordered that the two children be put in separate foster homes till they reach the age of 18. The court permitted the couple to meet the children twice a year, for one hour at a time.

The ministry of external affairs, in a statement, said, “Indian embassy in Oslo has been in contact with both the couple and the Norwegian authorities. The ministry of foreign affairs of Norway has been sensitized about the matter informally.” The MEA has also taken up the matter with the Norwegian embassy in New Delhi.

The MEA said it has advised legal recourse to the couple. It said the embassy in Oslo would continue to extend possible consular assistance to the couple.

The Norwegian authorities claimed Sagarika was incapable of taking care of her children. The evidence cited by them, the couple claim, is that their four-month-old child looked at the faces of other people around her instead of her mother, and that Abhigyan didn’t mix up with other children in kindergarten. The local authorities, the father reportedly claimed, also objected to the fact that they were sleeping in the same bed with the children.