Children’s Lifeworlds: Gender, Welfare and Labour in the Developing World

Working from a conscious committment to bridge the gap in knowledge between the world of childhood and that of adulthood, Children’s Lifeworlds moves beyond the ususal concern with child labour and welfare to a critical assessment of both boys’ and girls’ daily work in the context of the family in a south Indian village. Questioning why there is so little child labour in the developing world, this book discusses how class and kinship, gender and household organization, state ideology and education combine to define children’s work away. From the roots of children’s position in society, Children’s Lifeworlds shows how working children face the challenge of combining schooling with homelife and contributing to the household income. At a time when many developing countries are extending children’s education, the author focuses not just on the persisting inequalities of gender or class but on the way children balance the demands made on them by the adult world, how they view childhood within that world and how, ultimately, children too make history. This book stands to make a major contribution to our understanding of children’s lifeworlds, with children in the developing world creating the visibility of their work rather than being in need of compassion.