Child Abduction: Committee to hold consultations on India's position in Bengaluru.

The committee deliberating India's position on the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction is likely to hold a second round of consultations in Bengaluru this month. Concentrating till now on cases of parental abduction of NRIs from North India, the committee, has been approached by spouses from South India in the first round of talks that were held in Delhi on September 16 and 17.

"There were a significant number of cases from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra. Because of the cultural differences the kind of cases will vary differently. There's a need to study these cases as well," said a member of the panel headed by Justice Rajesh Bindal, which was formed in February. In July this year, the panel asked the public for comments.

In the consultation, panel heard cases from both sides. "While the men point at the host country's robust domestic violence laws and say that the child will suffer from the 'parental alienation syndrome', the women say that when a complaint of domestic assault is made, the child protection forces take away the child," said the member. "At this point, we are in a Catch-22 situation."

While over 50 pleas were heard in the panel's first consultation, there are over 95 cases still lodged with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The United States have been pursuing India to sign the Convention to which over 96 countries are signatories. But the plight of women who flee to India from abuse, in most cases, prompted women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi to carry on the consultation.

The panel, which has representation from the Chandigarh Judicial Academy Chandigarh, along with NRI Commission of Punjab, will also study the Civil Aspect of the International Child Abduction Bill, 2016.

Both sides

Men point at the robust domestic violence laws and say that the child will suffer from ‘parental alienation syndrome’.

Women say when a complaint of domestic assault is made, the child protection forces take away the child

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