Education of children on the urban margins

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Supporting Vulnerable Children and Youth: Family Disruption, Urban Marginality, and Educational Outcomes

Proposal

Formal systems of education are based on unstated assumptions about children’s contexts, priorities and the material and cultural resources they bring to their schooling experience. The enterprise of schooling, including its organization, content, transactions and expectations, pays little attention to the diversity of children’s backgrounds and is uninfluenced by the life conditions of those who attempt to access and participate in the ‘universalisation of education’ project.
In the Indian context, children living on the ‘urban margins’ (Wacquant, 2008; Ali and Riekar, 2008; Aceska et al 2019) can be seen as broadly falling in two categories; one, those living and working on the streets, and two, those living in state-run institutions or statutory homes set up under the juvenile justice system. Although both these categories of children are entitled to the right to education, the policies and programmes treat these groups as a residual category of rights-holders. These groups represent and exemplify the lives and worldviews of those who are out-of-school. Yet, there remains a policy gap in understanding what education means to these groups of children and the role it plays in their lives. As a result, children on the urban margins challenge the standardized structure and pedagogical processes of regular formal school systems, and their right to education remains unclaimed.
This presentation will draw upon two research studies that I had been involved in conducting in India; one, a study on mainstreaming child labourers into formal schools in Gaya, Thane, and Rangareddy districts, and second, a study of adolescent girls living in statutory homes in Bihar. The study on mainstreaming child labour offers rich insights into how children living and working on the streets have attempted to navigate their way into the formal school system and how their education needs remain on the periphery as the teachers attempt to manage classroom diversity. The study on adolescent girls in statutory homes brings out the issues such as restrictions imposed on their access to formal schools outside their institutions and the resulting halt in their educational journeys. The presentation will first analyse and problematise the policy silos created through legal systems and discourses on ‘right to education’ and ‘care and protection’ of children under juvenile justice. Second, the presentation will highlight some of the main findings related to experiences of children with the education system, their struggles and aspirations, and identify areas where the system is failing to protect the educational rights of these children. The presentation would conclude with a discussion on policy implications and what would be required to create a grounded and comprehensive approach towards addressing the right to education of children living on the urban margins in India.

References
Aceska, A., Heer, B., & Kaiser-Grolimund, A. (2019. Doing the city from the margins: Critical perspectives on urban marginality. In Anthropological Forum (Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 1-11). Routledge.
Ali, K. A., & Rieker, M. (2008). Introduction: urban margins. Social Text, 26(2), 1-12.
Wacquant, L. (2008). Urban outcasts: A comparative sociology of advanced marginality. Polity.

Author

• Archana Mahesh Mehendale