Childhoods In India

This book highlights the significance of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding children and childhoods in the Indian context. While it is recognised that multiple kinds of childhoods exist in India, policy and practice approaches to working with children are still based on a singular model of the ideal child rooted in certain Western traditions. The book challenges readers to go beyond the acknowledgement of differences to evolving alternate models to this conception of children and childhoods. Bringing together well-known scholars from history, politics, sociology, child development, paediatrics and education, the volume represents four major themes: the history and politics of childhoods; deconstructing childhoods by analysing their representations in art, mythology and culture in India; selected facets of childhoods as constructed through education and schooling; and understanding issues related to law, policy and practice, as they pertain to children and childhoods. This important book will be useful to scholars and researchers of education, especially those working in the domains of child development, sociology of education, educational psychology, public policy and South Asian studies.

This book explores the dominant constructions of childhood as perceived by children and adults in contemporary Indian society. It unveils the everyday lived experiences of children within family life to explain the meaning of childhood and the position of children as social groups. Based on detailed qualitative study, this volume discusses the themes and issues that impact dominant constructions of childhood. It establishes childhood as a structurally constructed category and sheds light on how key social differences influence the diverse experiences of childhood. The book critically examines how children, as social actors, contribute to the structural space of childhood through the recognition of their own experiences, voices, and ways of interpretations. Further, it also compares and analyses childhoods of today with those of the past generations. Engagingly written and nuanced, the book will be of great interest to teachers and students of education, childhood studies, elementary education, sociology of education and social psychology. It will also be useful for teachers of teacher training institutions, policymakers, educationalists, education professionals, parents and researchers working with children and childhood studies.

Is the bicycle, like the loudspeaker, a medium of communication in India? Do Indian children need trade unions as much as they need schools? What would you do with a mobile phone if all your friends were playing tag in the rain or watching Indian Idol? Children and Media in India illuminates the experiences, practices and contexts in which children and young people in diverse locations across India encounter, make, or make meaning from media in the course of their everyday lives. From textbooks, television, film and comics to mobile phones and digital games, this book examines the media available to different socioeconomic groups of children in India and their articulation with everyday cultures and routines. An authoritative overview of theories and discussions about childhood, agency, social class, caste and gender in India is followed by an analysis of films and television representations of childhood informed by qualitative interview data collected between 2005 and 2015 in urban, small-town and rural contexts with children aged nine to 17. The analysis uncovers and challenges widely held assumptions about the relationships among factors including sociocultural location, media content and technologies, and children’s labour and agency. The analysis casts doubt on undifferentiated claims about how new technologies ‘affect’, ‘endanger’ and/or ‘empower’, pointing instead to the importance of social class – and caste – in mediating relationships among children, young people and the poor. The analysis of children’s narratives of daily work, education, caring and leisure supports the conclusion that, although unrecognised and underrepresented, subaltern children’s agency and resourceful conservation makes a significant contribution to economic, interpretive and social reproduction in India.

Through a rich ethnography of street and working children in Calcutta, India, this book offers the first sustained enquiry into postcolonial childhoods, arguing that the lingering effects of colonialism are central to comprehending why these children struggle to inhabit the transition from labour to schooling.

This Report is one of the first comprehensive studies on young children in India. It focuses on children under 6 years of age and presents key aspects of their well-being and development. With the highest number of neonatal, infant and under-5 deaths in the world, there is an urgent need to address issues that continue to affect the young child in India. This volume: Introduces two young child indices aggregating selected indicators to separately track child outcomes and child circumstances. Provides an account of the current situation of the young child in terms of physical and cognitive development, access to care, disadvantaged children and major issues that have led to the continued neglect of this age group. Explores the policy and legal framework, fiscal space and the role and obligations of key stakeholders, including the state, private sector, civil society, media and the family. Highlights key recommendations and action points that can help to improve the ecosystem for early childhood care and development. Drawing on specially commissioned technical background papers, supplemented by extensive field experience of Mobile Creches in childcare, this Report will be of interest to practitioners, policymakers and influencers, think tanks and researchers of public policy, development studies, human rights, sociology and social anthropology, as well as general readers. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781003026488, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. .

India has the largest number of non-schoolgoing working children in the world. Why has the government not removed them from the labor force and required that they attend school, as have the governments of all developed and many developing countries? To answer this question, this major comparative study first looks at why and when other states have intervened to protect children against parents and employers. By examining Europe of the nineteenth century, the United States, Japan, and a number of developing countries, Myron Weiner rejects the argument that children were removed from the labor force only when the incomes of the poor rose and employers needed a more skilled labor force. Turning to India, the author shows that its policies arise from fundamental beliefs, embedded in the culture, rather than from economic conditions. Identifying the specific values that elsewhere led educators, social activists, religious leaders, trade unionists, military officers, and government bureaucrats to make education compulsory and to end child labor, he explains why similar groups in India do not play the same role.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of figures and tables -- Contributors -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I History and politics of childhood -- 1 Colonial modernity and the 'child figure': reconfiguring the multiplicity in 'multiple childhoods' -- 2 Did girls have a childhood in the past? Mythologies, ideologies, histories -- 3 India's children and the brave new world -- Part II Sociocultural perspectives -- 4 Childhood, culture and the social sciences: what we have gained and what we may be in the process of losing -- 5 Parent-child relations: changing contours and emerging trends -- 6 Bala Krishna: a paradigm of childhood relevant to the present time -- 7 Baccha log, taali bajao: orphans in cinematic imagination -- 8 Representing marginalised childhoods in contemporary graphic novels and picture books in India -- Part III Education and schooling -- 9 Construction of children in Indian educational curricular and policy documents (1964-2005): implications for education -- 10 Education and gender: a critical analysis of policies in India -- 11 Childhood as 'risky' and life as 'skills': social implications of psycho-educational programmes -- 12 Cultures of fear: children in school -- Part IV Law, practice and policy -- 13 Right to childhood and equitable access to justice -- 14 The journey of paediatrics from Vedic to neoteric -- 15 Food and nutrition in childhood: ensuring dietary adequacy, diversity and choice -- 16 Social policy and research interface: challenges and prospects -- Epilogue - Child rights: a dialogue -- Glossary -- Author Index -- Subject Index

Lost Childhood explores the everyday lives of street children in India. It presents insights on their life on the streets to provide a comprehensive understanding of why they are driven to extreme means of livelihoods. This volume, · Inquiries into the histories of street children, and discusses their socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics to provide a sense of their living conditions; · Sheds light on the social injustice experienced by these children, their health and hygiene, and also looks at the insecurities faced by the children in their interactions with the society; · Uses detailed field research data to highlight issues that affect the lives of street children such as education, gender discrimination, and their social networks; · Suggests a way forward that would not only benefit street children but will also be of use to the community in understanding their lives, problems, and help explore this issue in further detail. The book will be useful to scholars and researchers of human geography, development studies, child development, urban poverty, and social justice. It will also be of interest to policymakers, social workers, and field workers who work with street children.

Discover what it’s like to grow up in India in this fascinating, nonfiction Level 2 Ready-to-Read, part of a series all about kids just like you in countries around the world! Namaskār! My name is Nisha, and I'm a kid just like you living in India. India is a country filled with colorful festivals, majestic temples, and an extraordinary history! Have you ever wondered what India is like? Come along with me to find out! Each book in our Living in… series is narrated by a kid growing up in their home country and is filled with fresh, modern illustrations as well as loads of history, geography, and cultural goodies that fit perfectly into Common Core standards. Join kids from all over the world on a globe-trotting adventure with the Living in… series—sure to be a hit with children, parents, educators, and librarians alike!

This book addresses issues concerning five major categories of disadvantaged children, namely street children, children involved in trafficking, child labor, slum children, and children in institutional care, which apply to a large number of children around the world, including India. Compiling primary and secondary research-based evidences in addition to the first-hand experiences of the authors, it describes the link between social dynamics and the plight of disadvantaged children from both social and cultural perspectives. Each chapter includes examples and case studies to offer readers essential insights into the real-life situations of these children. At the end of each chapter, a number of evidence-based measures and models are proposed for agencies working to support disadvantaged children. Given its comprehensive coverage, the book is of interest to scholars, and government and non-government agencies involved in the welfare of disadvantaged children, funding agencies, and social science, medical and public health professionals.