ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between play, childhood, and children’s daily life, and offers a critical perspective on children’s right to play that moves beyond an individual understanding of rights, as enshrined in the universal convention on child rights. By adopting a ‘critical as situatedness approach,’ wherein examining children’s right to play is possible through an analysis of the situated experiences of children and their environments in their daily life, this chapter argues that children’s right to play manifests in the everyday sociopolitical and economic contexts in which they grow up. It also emphasizes the role of political economy and co-generationality in understanding children’s right to play. By drawing on a study conducted with children in an urban informal settlement in Delhi, India, this chapter demonstrates how gender discrimination and material challenges are negotiated by children during play, highlighting the need to reflect on issues of equality and address existing exclusions in discourses on children’s right to play. In this way, this chapter also contributes to the emerging scholarship on Critical Children’s Rights Studies.
