Jyotsna Jha, Director of CBPS, presented a paper titled ‘Schooling, Gender and Childhood: A Critical Analysis of Policies and Practices in India’ at the interdisciplinary symposium on Childhoods In India: Traditions, Trends and Transformations, organised by the Azim Premji University, Bangalore, between 19-21 November 2015.
The symposium brought together academics and practitioners from varied backgrounds in an attempt to initiate a dialogue to develop a historically and contextually situated understanding of childhood, and policy making. In her talk, Jyotsna highlighted the three key points: the importance of understanding educational opportunities (particularly for girls) in relation to the freedoms as well as unfreedoms that set limits on their access, mobility and participation within education; the importance of paying attention to the multi-scalar nature of policy making, and the multiple actors and processes involved in it, rather than focusing only on gaps between policy and implementation; and the need for policy makers to pay attention to consensus building as a way to improve translation of policies on ground.
The session was chaired by Prof. Shyam Menon, Vice Chancellor, Ambedkar University, New Delhi and Prof. Farida Khan, Jamia Milia University, New Delhi. Maithreyi, Research Advisor at CBPS, also had attended this 3-day seminar, and contributed towards documentation of the symposium.