Indians in the United States of America (USA) who are facing problem seeking custody of their children after marital discord are seeking help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reports The Hindu.
Modi will be addressing a joint meeting of the US Congress during his visit to the US on 7 and 8 June on outgoing President Barak Obama’s invitation.
One of the Indian parents in a marital discord is capable of taking the child to India, effectively breaking contact with the parent in the US.
An association of such parents, Bring Our Kids Home (BOKH), is seeking a bilateral agreement on the issue.
The US State Department has also written to its Indian counterpart in December 2015, with no response from India.
The report states that most of these cases are women in an abusive marriage fleeing to India with their children. However, there are cases of men doing the same.
If these women are on a dependent visa, fighting cases in the US is not an option.
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, 1980 requires the cases of child custody to be fought in their “habitual residence”.
The convention also makes it difficult for the victims of domestic abuse to leave the country with the child.
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