The worldview towards childhood was captured by the CRC adopted by the United Nation in 1989, and was implemented all over the world, including in India in 1992. The CRC stance of childhood was directly influenced by the North (western developed countries) and as such, it is individualistic, ungendered, and to a great extend nostalgic in nature. Such construct of childhood has been criticized by activists in the south from the very beginning and rightly so. The CRC view of childhood was criticized for many valid reason, two key criticism includes
- Not giving a role or importance to the kin, family groups, community which are critical in the south as part of the socialization process of the child (Nieuwenhuys, 1998).
- And, ignoring the multiplicity of childhood in the south.
Considering the plurality of childhood in the south, it seems like an individualistic approach in policy paper seems logical, but the childhood in the south is too complicated to be addressed as such in policy papers. So how complicated is the childhood in the south, and looking at India specifically, can there be such thing as an Indian childhood?
According to Raman (2000), in classical Hindu literature, there’s only one type of childhood i.e. ‘boychild’ as its point of reference, whereas in some tribes in India, the practice varies. She also mentioned that in India, the individuality of the child is acknowledged while deeply embedded in the larger social matrix of community, caste/tribe, kin group and family. Some key / common feature of childhood that can be observed across India might includes:
Plurality of Childhood: Childhood in India is marked by its plurality as captured by Raman (2000). For instance, the experience of childhood in India varies horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, there are almost 5000 communities in India which translate to 5000 diverse experience, while vertically, we have the caste, class and gender (Raman, 2000).
Distinct Development task: Also, the distinction of Indian childhood from that of the western concept can be seen in the developmental task of Indian children (Bisht, 2008), for instance; the girl child gradually take over the household chores from mothers and in preparation of a marriage life, while the boys get indulgence in their earlier life gradually moving towards an inflexible standards of absolute obedience and conformity to familial and societal standards.
This implies that Indian childhood can be marked by:
- Plurality of childhood: Since childhood is socially construct, then the extreme diversity in India will definitely have an impact on how we construct childhood across the country.
- Continuity between childhood and adulthood. There's no rigid gap between childhood and adulthood like in the west especially for the girl child, she's expected to perform adult gender role from a very early age.
- Childhood as a time for preparation for adulthood, especially for girls who are constantly groomed for marriage.
- Unique developmental task (girls priority is household works and preparation for marriage which are not a priority among parents in the west, while boys are indulged at first then move towards familial and social conformity).
What more can we add to this list...any suggestion?
