PETALING JAYA: M. Indira Gandhi may have regained legal custody of her daughter Prasana Diksa following the Federal Court's landmark decision on the unilateral conversion of children on Monday, but if and when she gets her daughter back she is likely to face an uphill task integrating the nine-year-old girl to a different way of life.

Child psychologists have pointed out that Prasana has been raised as a Muslim for the past eight years, but Indira practises Hinduism.

Early Childhood Care and Education Council Malaysia (ECCEC) president Datuk Dr Chiam Heng Keng said that Indira must be patient and sensitive to Prasana's way of life before reintroducing her to a different lifestyle.

"If she (Prasana) is used to a certain diet or performing Muslim prayers, then Indira must take that into account. She cannot force the child to adapt quickly into a new environment.

"The mother has to be very sensitive and adjust to the child's needs, rather than imposing her own values on the child," she told The Star.

According to Dr Chiam, Indira will face an uphill task caring for Prasana because the nine-year-old is no longer in her formative childhood years.

"It's not going to be easy because she was only an 11-month-old infant when she was taken away from her mother.

"She hardly knows her mother and she doesn't know her way of life," she said.

Dr Chiam also said that the possibility of Prasana rejecting Indira as her mother is quite high, as she has not had any recent contact with her mother.

"The mother has to begin by accepting the fact that the child might reject her," she added.

On Monday (Jan 29), the Apex court declared the conversion of Indira's three children into Islam by her ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah as null and void, putting an end to the eight-year legal saga which began in April, 2009.

Riduan, who was K. Padmanathan before he converted to Islam, had taken Prasana away from Indira when she was just 11 months old.

The other two children, Tevi Darshiny, then 12, Karan Dinesh, then 11 – remained with their mother.

Meanwhile, Kin & Kids Marriage, Family and Child Therapy center director Charis Wong said that the process of reuniting Prasana with her mother and siblings needed to be carefully and sensitively planned out, with support from a collaborative team of professionals.

"The father is the only parent this girl has known and Islam is the only faith she has embraced.

"One cannot just expect and assume that the reunion between Prasana and her mother and siblings to immediately go back to what it was nine years ago when she was still an infant. All members of the family have to be supported," said Wong.

She also regarded the forceful removal of Prasana by her father as "the most severe form of parental alienation and child abuse".

"Forceful removal from a primary caretaker and family is a traumatic. What more by the father, who is supposed to be a caretaker and whose primary responsibility is to protect the family, not tear it apart.

"The child, mum and siblings are all victims of trauma," she said.

Wong proposed that the family go through a reunification therapy program by family and child therapists, and supported by the judicial system.

"Since they have no contact and were separated for nine years, they are complete strangers. The program can assist in rebuilding the emotional connection and bond between Prasana, her siblings and her mother," said Wong.