For Dhara Shah, motherhood has come to mean vocabulary drills, grammar lessons and two brief, supervised visits a month to see her four-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Ariha, an Indian citizen, has been in foster care in Germany since infancy— a separation that has stretched into its fifth year despite the dismissal of abuse allegations against her parents.
The Gujarat-born mother has been learning German for nearly three years to communicate with her daughter, who speaks only the language of her foster homes. Ms. Dhara has become the sole interpreter for her husband, Bhavesh Shah, who does not know the language. Family members in Ahmedabad told The Hindu that Ms. Dhara translates during the couple’s tightly regulated visits with their daughter.
The case in brief
The couple moved to Berlin in 2018 after Mr. Bhavesh secured a job as a software engineer. Ariha was born in February 2021. The lives were upended seven months later, in September, when German child welfare authorities took the baby into foster care following allegations of abuse.
According to the family, those allegations were found to be unsubstantiated and formally dismissed in early 2022. However, German child welfare authorities maintained that the injuries observed indicated “negligence in care” rather than abuse. On that basis, a court terminated the parents’ custody rights and ordered that Ariha remain in foster care.
