ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the differences in rules governing girls’ and boys’ lives also manifest themselves in the relative place of school in their lives. An analysis of girls’ experience of restrictions on movement, dress and friendships suggests that for them school occupies a central place, as an escape from everyday drudgery and as the only legitimately – albeit conditionally – available social space. Many boys also attach importance to educational qualifications and schooling, but on an everyday basis, other sources of rewards, creative stimulation and recognition are available to labour class boys that are unavailable to labour class girls. This chapter unpacks how the deeply gendered distinction between ghar/bahar (home/outside) fundamentally shapes the universes inhabited by poor urban children and, consequently, their work, social life, educational participation and motivation for schooling; moreover, it shows that gender relations and roles are also fundamentally classed. Most significantly, discussion presented in this chapter demonstrates children’s agential capacity to reflect on their experiences and constraints as they negotiate poverty and patriarchy.
