Children and their Rights: Reflections on the Everyday Life of the Children in the Char Areas of Assam

Abstract

This paper is an ethnographic account of children’s experiences in char areas of Assam from a sociological lens with special reference to child rights. From the 1970s onwards, social scientists have begun to consider children as social actors, as opposed to the idea of children as ‘incompetent and dependent beings’. It is argued that it is not always enough to make legal policies to solve children’s problems or see children’s well-being from an adult’s perspective, without considering them as their own agents. Children are now deemed as active members of society and they have the same rights as that of an adult to make their own understanding of the world. It is through the narrative of five children, selected from the char area, that I have analyzed various dimensions of their everyday life. The primary objective of this study has been to understand the everyday life of children in Bhomoraguri chapori from children’s perspective. Besides, this paper also explores various issues and challenges associated with the violation of child rights in the chapori.