Edited by Renu Bhandari, Thursday, 1 Feb 2024, 13:09
The experience of 12-year-old child may vary depending on the time, place, society, and culture they belong to. This means that childhoods are different depending on where and when they happen, and that children’s lives are affected by wider political, social, cultural, and economic factors. Children and childhood are influenced by the social cultural context they are developing and learning in
Case study of Noori, a 12-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Noori is a 12-year-old girl in a small, remote village of Jafrabad in the northern state of India, Uttar Pradesh. Her family comprises of her grandparents, parents, six siblings – two brothers and four sisters. Noori is the oldest of the six siblings and has to take the responsibility for many household chores: fetching water from the village well, cooking for the family, cleaning the house, looking after her younger siblings, helping in the family farming, and contributing to the family income by working in the village market selling the local produce that is set every week on Tuesdays. Noori starts her day at about 6 am and after getting through the routine household chores, she has to walk her two younger brothers to the village school that has facilities to teach children only till class 5. After class 5, all children progress to another school that is about 20 km away from this village and is not easily accessible. Noori went to school only till class 3 and had to give up school because she was expected to contribute to the family income and add in extra pair of hands for household chores. In the afternoon, Noori helps her parents in the farm with sowing seeds, watering the fields, and reaping the harvest. All these tasks are seasonal and dependent on the time in farming year. In between the rest periods from the farming, Noori enjoys singing and being with her friends, who are of the same age group, and they make some time to meet every afternoon. There are no resources for learning or leisure in the village except an annual village fair. Noori looks forward each year to that fair.
Childhood across the world
The experience of 12-year-old child may vary depending on the time, place, society, and culture they belong to. This means that childhoods are different depending on where and when they happen, and that children’s lives are affected by wider political, social, cultural, and economic factors. Children and childhood are influenced by the social cultural context they are developing and learning in
Case study of Noori, a 12-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Noori is a 12-year-old girl in a small, remote village of Jafrabad in the northern state of India, Uttar Pradesh. Her family comprises of her grandparents, parents, six siblings – two brothers and four sisters. Noori is the oldest of the six siblings and has to take the responsibility for many household chores: fetching water from the village well, cooking for the family, cleaning the house, looking after her younger siblings, helping in the family farming, and contributing to the family income by working in the village market selling the local produce that is set every week on Tuesdays. Noori starts her day at about 6 am and after getting through the routine household chores, she has to walk her two younger brothers to the village school that has facilities to teach children only till class 5. After class 5, all children progress to another school that is about 20 km away from this village and is not easily accessible. Noori went to school only till class 3 and had to give up school because she was expected to contribute to the family income and add in extra pair of hands for household chores. In the afternoon, Noori helps her parents in the farm with sowing seeds, watering the fields, and reaping the harvest. All these tasks are seasonal and dependent on the time in farming year. In between the rest periods from the farming, Noori enjoys singing and being with her friends, who are of the same age group, and they make some time to meet every afternoon. There are no resources for learning or leisure in the village except an annual village fair. Noori looks forward each year to that fair.