[The Coop] How to Raise Sensitive Indian Children for a Diverse Future
No waiting for the New Normal. We are calling for the long Due Normal.
Welcome to the 5th edition of The Coop where we did a bit forecasting on what our children’s futures would look like:
The spaces your children occupy, online & offline, would be more diverse in terms of social, economic and religious backgrounds of their peers as well as gender identities and orientations. So we need to ask ourselves – does your child have the empathy to deal with this diversity or will they feel alienated?
For a country that prides itself on diversity, we have rarely reacted well when faced with it. A group of boys get together, form an online group to bully, shame and abuse girls. A group of higher caste men get together and beat up a dalit women asking for her rations. A bunch of majoritarians get together on social media to abuse a Pulitzer winning journalist. The largely cis-het staff get together to throw a lesbian couple out of a hotel.
There seems to be a deep-seated cultural dysfunction that manifests whenever we encounter the slightest diversity in gender, sexuality, religion & caste norms. And it quickly spirals into violence & abuse. If we are to ensure that this toxic herd entitlement & estrangement is not passed on to the next generation of Indian children, tough questions need to asked and prickly conversations need to be entered into.
In this edition, we put together ways in which we can try and equip our children with particular empathies & sensitivities so that they can thrive in a cosmopolitan and diverse future.
This is followed by 3 short documentaries about the plight of migrant workers shot earlier this decade but feels like it was shot yesterday. Proving again that not all new normals are necessarily new.
And finally, we suggest a webinar that should prove interesting & illuminating especially in the light of the boy’s locker room case.
#DueNormal
A Field Guide To Indian Empathies: Raising Sensitive Children for a Diverse Future Gender, Sexuality, Religion & Caste are issues that fascinate, concern and even worry Indian children. These are core elements that you associate with identity, especially in India. Conversations around them are tough but cannot be overlooked anymore. They are needed in homes today. And your child will need them for their futures tomorrow.
‘A Field Guide to Indian Empathies’ (Vol 1) has strategies & tips developed in consultation with experts & friends with first hand experience of the issues to guide you and your child on a journey to empathy & sensitivity.
1. Click here & Start with Talking Gender Equality with Your Child in India (Especially Your Boys)
2. Click here to read about Raising LGBT+ Sensitive Children.
3. Click here to read about why it is important to Talk To Your Child about Religion.
4. And finally, no Indian child can be truly empathetic & sensitive until You Talk to Them about Caste.
(This material is new and left-field for us so we request you for feedback. Please do write in with your thoughts, suggestions, brickbats et al. Reply to this email or send in your thoughts to info @ aarambhindia.org)
Labour
It was already a tragedy when India’s migrant laborers were left without livelihood, aid or a way back home. But now governments have taken to modern day slavery, forcing workers to stay back and work in hazardous conditions and imposing longer hours & taking away their basic rights. Don’t they deserve to be with their families and children in these anxious times? Don’t their children deserve to parented by their fathers? For the most vulnerable children & families in the country the crisis has just been deepened by cruelty in policy and management.
Do watch the documentaries made by the Bangalore collective Maraa.
Webinar
Another Pandemic: Intersection of Digital Abuse
Today at 5.00pm India time. The good peeps at Breakthrough has put together an interesting & insightful group of panelists (Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Anja Kovacs, Mariya Salim, Bishakha Datta & Amitabh Kumar) who will be discussing abuse in online spaces. Its on Zoom. No registrations needed. Just click the link to get access to the room.
A reminder again that our donation page to help families of child victims of sexual abuse survive in lockdown is still accepting funds. We appeal to you to donate or just share it with someone who may be interested in donating.
‘A Field Guide to Indian Empathies’ was put together by Ashish, Sudipta, Teemol, Sawleha, Uma & Sid.
That’s it for this Week. See You In the Next!
To Contribute to The Coop,
email us at aarambh.prerana @ gmail.com
call/whatsapp on +91-8652625505.
Diversity as understood and written here is Postmodernist ideological view. True diversity is diversity of thoughts. Diversity propaganda for intersectionality and creating class binaries for political ideology and agenda is quite well known to educated folks now.
Hi Rahul. Thank you for Engaging. Firstly, none of this is mandatory. It is a choice and a very personal choice that families have to make. We are not imposing any accountability nor employing scare tactics. This article is a response to very real events that are making children unsafe and putting them at risk. (We know this from our work on the ground)
We are not creating binaries. Do look around. They are especially visible at this moment.
And this is not postmodernist. This is parenting advice that we consider comes under the category of ‘new banal’. (like ‘how to’ videos on youtube & stuff)
And as for the thoughts, i think they are valid but being an organization that works on the ground, we firmly believe actions matter more. If thoughts were horses, everyone would have a ride back home.
Hope we are making sense.