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The United Sates on Thursday accused India of not clinging to any protocol with regard to International Parental Child Abduction claiming that 90 percent of pursuits for the return of abducted children persisted unsettled for over a year.

International Parental Child Abduction (IPCA) is the removal/retention of a child outside their country in breach of another parent or guardian’s custody rights.

The report said that, “India does not adhere to any protocols with respect to international parental child abduction. In 2017, India demonstrated a pattern of non-compliance. Specifically, the competent authorities in India persistently failed to work with the Department of State to resolve abduction cases.”

The state department said that, the Indian government failed to take concrete steps to resolve pending cases despite repeatedly meeting with U.S. officials to discuss abduction cases.

In the year of 2017, the State Department reported 104 cases of abduction of U.S. children in India, including 20 new cases and 84 from the former years. Notably, almost all abduction cases are results of disputes in which one the parents lives in India with their children and the other parent mostly obtains court order to take custody of their kids.

"Judicial action in custody cases in India has been slow, and Indian courts tend to default to granting custody to the taking parent. The lack of clear legal procedures for addressing international parental child abduction cases under Indian law makes it difficult for India to resolve these cases," report by state Department.

It further said that, it will go along to encourage India to accede to the convention and expand public diplomacy activities related to the convention.

By Sowmya Sangam