She loves Indian meals and in movies shared by her mother and father seems joyful of their firm.

But Baby M, two-and-a-half-years-old, is now in a centre for youngsters with particular wants close to the German metropolis of Berlin, her mom says.

The toddler has been on the centre of a diplomatic row between India and Germany after she was taken away from her Indian household on accusations of kid abuse in September 2021 – when she was solely seven months outdated.

In June this 12 months, a court docket in Berlin terminated the parental rights of Dia and her husband Amit – we aren’t utilizing their actual names for authorized causes – and the newborn’s custody was handed over to Jugendamt or the Youth Welfare Office of Germany. The court docket additionally rejected the mother and father’ demand to repatriate the kid to India. The mother and father have known as it a “sham trial” and filed an enchantment.

Dia, who’s at the moment in Delhi to drum up assist in her battle to deliver the kid again to India, dissolves into tears whereas speaking to the BBC about being separated from her daughter.

The household moved to Berlin in 2018 when Amit obtained a job there and Baby M was born on 2 February 2021.

According to court docket paperwork, on the centre of the household’s row with the authorities is a genital damage Baby M suffered when she was seven months outdated. It has one physician saying that they’d “never seen such a severe genital injury in an infant” and that she wanted surgical procedure to repair it.

The little one safety providers took her away saying they suspected sexual abuse – an accusation the household denied. The hospital the place she was handled cleared them later, with docs certifying that “there was no evidence” to recommend sexual abuse and the police closed the case with out urgent costs.

The mother and father say they consider the damage was unintended. Two unbiased docs from the US and India who noticed the newborn’s medical information agreed with that evaluation.

“The injury highly likely was caused by an accident. It was impossible that parents intentionally inflicted injuries on her repeatedly and then rushed her to the doctors,” they stated in a report submitted in court docket. They added that they believed that “her injuries could’ve been worsened because of all the invasive examinations” she was put via.

But the kid safety authorities stated they did not assume that Baby M can be secure at house – a competition the court docket agreed with.

So, she has now spent practically two years in foster care, and her mother and father say they’ve been allowed little contact along with her – regardless of social staff who have been assigned to the household describing them as “loving and caring” mother and father and describing the kid’s interactions with them as “consistently positive, joyful and curious”. A court-appointed psychologist additionally advisable that one of many mother and father reside with Baby M in a parent-child facility supervised by a caregiver.

But final week, Jugendamt knowledgeable the mother and father that “all visitations with their daughter have been cancelled as there is no one to pick and drop her”, says Dia, alleging that they haven’t even been allowed to video-call the kid.

“We have no information on who is caring for her since she was moved from foster care to the centre for children with special needs. The secrecy surrounding our baby is totally bizarre.”

Dia accuses the German authorities of “snatching my child because of cultural differences and miscommunication” – she says she will’t communicate German and the translator she was given spoke Hindi however didn’t know Gujarati. The BBC has reached out to Jugendamt and their response is awaited.

Baby M’s case has obtained a whole lot of consideration in India and Germany – protests have been held in a number of Indian cities and by the Indian diaspora in Frankfurt and Darmstadt and assist has poured in for the mother and father.

In Delhi, Dia has met officers from the Indian ministry of exterior affairs (MEA) and lobbied dozens of MPs who’ve despatched a letter to the German Ambassador Phillip Ackerman to repatriate the toddler to India.

An MP urged the government to take the required steps to deliver her again. Another politician requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up the matter with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when he visits Delhi subsequent month for the G-20 summit.

Dia too is now interesting to the prime minister to intervene. “My only hope is Mr Modi now. If he intervenes, my daughter can come back,” she says.

The dispute over Baby M has revived reminiscences of a similar case from 2011 when two Indian kids have been taken from their mother and father in Norway. They have been finally returned to India a 12 months later.

Suranya Aiyar, former lawyer and activist who helped the Indian household in Norway and is now serving to Baby M’s mother and father, says such circumstances are usually not unusual.

“It’s a significant problem. The assumption is that it’s a brilliant solution, and needs no further discussion.”

The function of Jugendamt in cross-border household disputes has additionally been criticised by the European Parliament. In a scathing report in 2018, the EP accused the organisation of discrimination, being unfair to kids of migrants, and harming the rights of each mother and father and the youngsters they confiscate.

In a new report released in May, the EP stated its Committee on Petitions nonetheless receives complaints about Jugendamt. “The role and actions of youth welfare offices are often seen as too far-reaching… Foreign parents feel disadvantaged compared to German parents.”

A greater answer in circumstances like these, Ms Aiyar says, can be for the state to assign social staff to assist households take care of their kids.

In Baby M’s case, she says, the one answer is for the federal government to step in.

“The child has done no wrong. Let her return to India. She’s an Indian citizen and she has every right to be here.”

The Indian authorities has stated the case is being given “high priority”. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated earlier this month that they’d “summoned the German Ambassador” to convey India’s considerations.

“At a minimum we believe this child’s cultural rights and rights as an Indian are being infringed upon,” Mr Bagchi stated at a media briefing. “We have asked for the early return of the child to India and we will continue to press Germany on this matter,” he added.

A German embassy spokesman in Delhi refused to touch upon the case. But authorities sources in Germany stated the case was in court docket and out of their fingers, including that they have been working with India to discover a decision to the case.

Indian authorities say they’ve recognized a household in Gujarat – the western Indian state to which the household belongs – the place Baby M may be positioned in foster care.

Dr Kiran Aggarwal, retired authorities paediatrician and former member of the kid welfare committee of the Delhi authorities, says the kid needs to be along with her mother and father.

“India has very robust child protection laws and if the German court repatriates her, she can be looked after in India,” she stated.

As time passes, Dia says every day provides to her fear that she’s shedding her little one little by little.

“She’s not being able to learn her mother tongue Gujarati. She only speaks German, how will I be able to speak to her?” she asks.

The household can be struggling to pay the 9m rupees ($108,477; £85,554) they’ve been ordered to fork out for foster care and court docket prices.

“We raised money through crowdfunding and have already paid 5m rupees. We are a middle-class family. They have broken us morally and emotionally, now they are trying to break us financially too,” she says.

BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and options.