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| Culture clash- US government breaks up Indian family in USA |
Staff Correspondent, August 1, 2015, NewsCrunch
A probable case of clashing cultures or even failed communication has resulted in grave injustice for an Indian family in the US, at Beaverton, Oregon.
In a case revolving around their son, who by most accounts seems to have injured himself accidentally, first, a juvenile court judge held the mother responsible, calling her ‘mentally sick’.
But a grand jury on the very next day found the father guilty of charges of assault and ordered his arrest, who is now on bail.
The Hindu reports that the travails of the family, which has not been identified, began early this year, in February.
When their three year old son fell and injured his leg, his mother took him to the doctor. On diagnosis that he had suffered a hairline fracture, she casually mentioned that maybe her husband had dropped their son, when the latter had climbed his back to play.
This was interpreted as a case of abuse and the US Government agencies, which deal with child abuse got involved. The woman was asked to sign a number of papers, many of which she could not understand.
The husband, who worked with a high tech firm, was no longer allowed to enter his own home or have contact with his wife and children.
After sustained rounds of counseling he was allowed to return home and the social workers were ready to close the case. But, in July, the District Attorney reopened the case and started trial, calling the wife to testify against her own husband.
The husband is again cut off from his family, which seems to have come from West Bengal.
The plight of the couple is similar to few other cases of families caught in the cross-cultural currents, such as the Saha case of 2012, involving an Indian couple from New Jersey, and the Bhattacharya case, involving the Bengali couple who lived in Norway.