Child Rights Education for Inclusion and Protection: Primary Prevention

By Murli Desai and Sheetal Goel

The aims of child rights education are to make children and their primary duty-bearers aware of child rights so that they both can be empowered to together advocate for and apply them at their family, school and community levels. This sourcebook focuses on child rights education for primary prevention related to inclusion and protection. Child rights education for exclusion, non-discrimination and inclusion is discussed in the context of family and society with reference to girls, children with disability, and Dalit and tribal children, and child rights to cultural and financial inclusion. Child rights education for protection comprises prevention of violence against children with reference to physical abuse/ corporal punishment and bullying, commercial exploitation of children with reference to child labour and trafficking and sale of children, sexual abuse and exploitation of children, problems in adolescent sexual relationships such as violence, teenage pregnancy, abortion and unwed motherhood, and sexually transmitted infections and HIV, child marriage, and conflict with law. 

This is a necessary read for social workers, lawyers, researchers, trainers and teachers working on child rights across the world, and especially in developing countries.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springer
• Release date: Aug 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9789811304170

Book preview

Part IChild’s Rights Education for Inclusive Family and Society

© Child Rights and You 2018

Murli Desai and Sheetal GoelChild Rights Education for Inclusion and ProtectionRights-based Direct Practice with Childrenhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0417-0_1

1. Child’s Rights in Family Life Education

Murli Desai¹   and Sheetal Goel²  

(1)

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Former Professor Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

(2)

Social Work Practitioner, Surrey County Council, Kingston upon Thames, UK

Murli Desai (Corresponding author)

Email: [e-mail]

Sheetal Goel

Email: [e-mail]

Keywords

Family life educationPlurality of family formsDemocratisationFamily’s internal dynamicsFamily’s interaction with its environment

Prerequisite Modules

The prerequisite Modules for this Module are:

From Sourcebook I on Introduction to Rights-Based Direct Practice with Children:

Modules on Life Skills Development.

From Sourcebook II on Child Rights Education for Participation and Development: Primary Prevention:

Introduction to Child Rights Education,

Child Rights to Participation and Children’s Associations.

Conceptual Framework of Family Life Education

Concepts and Theories

Family and Household

The family may be broadly defined as a unit of two or more persons united by ties of marriage, blood, adoption or consensual unions, generally constituting a single household, and interacting and communicating with each other (Desai, 1994, p. 16). Every individual has a family of orientation or family of origin as it is the family he/she is born into. Most individuals also form a family of procreation, mostly by marriage and childbearing but may be also by consensual relationships, reproductive technologies or adoption (Collins et al., 2007). Family and household are often used synonymously. However, households are places where people live together and share assets. Families and households are related but not all families live in the same households and not all households are families (Leeder, 2003).

Importance of Family

Family is considered the most important system for the child as it is an inseparable part of children’s birth, identity, name, language, ethnicity, religion and nationality. The family’s composition, structure and interaction patterns are major factors in children’s survival, health, education, development and protection. Diversity in the environment brings variations in family life, which, in turn, explains differences in children’s well-being to a large extent. Similarly, changes in the environment influence the family life, which affects the children (Desai, 1994).

Family as a System and Family Sub-systems

The ecological perspective views family as a social system. As a system, family is a functional unit that is composed of interrelated and interdependent sub-systems. It has a boundary that differentiates it from other systems in the environment and has equilibrium and adaptive propensities that tend to assure its viability as a social system. As a social system, a family comprises of sub-systems. Each member can be considered a sub-system, and its dyad can also be considered a sub-system. Depending on the family form, a family can have the following dyadic sub-systems:

Conjugal sub-systems,

Filial sub-systems,

Fraternal sub-systems

Grandparent–grandchild sub-systems,

In-law sub-systems,

Consensual sub-systems.

Family Well-Being

International Year of the Family: The UN has contributed to discussion of family policy across the world through the proclamation of 1994 as the International Year of the Family (IYF). Its theme was Family: resources and responsibilities in a changing world, and its motto was Building the Smallest Democracy at the Heart of Society. The principles of the IYF consider family as the basic unit of society, warranting special attention. The principles of the IYF seek to promote the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms accorded to all individuals by the set of internationally agreed instruments, formulated under the aegis of the UN:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

The International Covenants on Human Rights,

The Declaration on Social Progress and Development,

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,

The Convention on the Rights of the Child,

The UN Principles for Older Persons.

The IYF recognised the family diversity and addressed the needs of all families

(http://​social.​un.​org/​index/​Family/​InternationalObs​ervances/​TwentiethAnniver​saryofIYF2014.​aspx).

Rights-Based Goals for Family Well-Being: During the IYF, based on the human rights instruments, India’s Ministry of Welfare in collaboration with UNICEF India and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (1994) laid down the goals for family well-being. Accordingly, family well-being may be perceived as a combination of gender-aware, child-centred and elderly friendly family rights and responsibilities that cut across the diverse forms of families. Such goals for family well-being were visualised to be threefold:

1.

A democratic family with scope for the development of individual members and for enriched family relationships,

2.

A democratic environment for the family with scope for the well-being of each family unit and for its harmony with its environment,

3.

A family for every individual, unless an adult leaves it by choice.

Family Life Education

Aims: Family life education (FLE) comprises education about family life with the aim to achieve family well-being and prevent problems in family life.

Principles: Following are the principles of FLE:

FLE is relevant to individuals, couples and families across the lifespan.

FLE draws on multidisciplinary knowledge.

FLE is offered in many venues, including community workshops, video and print media, publications, the Internet.

FLE is educational rather than therapeutic (adapted from Arcus et al., 1993, cited in Duncan & Goddard, 2005).

Learner Objectives of Family Life Education: The learner objectives of FLE workshops may be to develop skills for:

1.

Acceptance and respect for plurality of family forms,

2.

Democratisation of family’s internal dynamics with scope for the development of individual members and for enriched family relationships,

3.

Democratisation of family’s interaction with its environment with scope for the well-being of each family unit and for its harmony with its environment.

Activities

Introductory Activity 1.1: Brainstorming on Family

Learner Outcome: At the end of this activity, the participants will understand the nuances of the term family and develop awareness of the requirements of family well-being.

Procedure: Use the following procedure to conduct this activity:

1.

Conduct a brainstorming session with the participants with the following questions:

What do you mean by the word family?

Minimally how many persons can make a family?

Does a family only mean blood and legal relationships?

How is a family by birth different from a family by marriage?

Can unrelated persons staying together be considered a family?

How is family different from household?

What is the importance of family?

Do you know of people who do not have a family?

Do you know of children who do not have a family?

What are the implications of not having a family?

2.

Ask the participants what they mean by family well-being and how it can be achieved.

3.

Share Summary Chart 1.1 to discuss what leads to family well-being.

4.

Introduce the following units of the module:

Acceptance and respect for plurality of family forms,

Democratisation of family’s internal dynamics,

Democratisation of family’s interaction with its environment.

Time Estimate: 30 min

Acceptance and Respect for Plurality of Family Forms

Concepts and Theories

Family Forms

The family form comprises of its size, age and sex of its members and the relationship among them. Families have plurality of composition that varies with class, ethnicity, geographical location and individual choice (Desai, 2010, pp. 191–192).

The normative or traditional family forms comprise joint and nuclear families:

The joint family comprises two or more couples and their children, bound together by common movable or immovable property, and may or may not be staying together. Variations in a joint family are lineal joint families, collateral joint families and lineal-cum-collateral joint families. Leslie and Korman (1984) termed extended families as consanguineous families as they focus on blood relations.

The nuclear family comprises couples and their unmarried children and is generally financially independent of other families. A variation of a nuclear family is the supplemented nuclear family, which comprises a nuclear family with single relatives (Kolenda, 1987). Leslie and Korman (1984) termed nuclear families as conjugal families as a conjugal relation is the core of these families.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) (International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) & ICF, 2017), 58% of the households are nuclear in India which are defined as households comprising a married couple or a man or a woman living alone or with unmarried children (biological, adopted, or fostered) with or without unrelated individuals. The proportion of nuclear households is higher in urban areas (61%) than in rural areas (56.2%).

As marriage and children are considered essential elements of a traditional family, the following family forms based in life situations and/or choice face challenges in the traditional society:

Single-parent families (due to unwed parenthood, death of a spouse, desertion, separation or divorce or migration of a spouse),

Childless families (due to infertility or out of choice),

Reconstituted/stepfamily,

Consensual unions,

Grandparent–grandchildren families.

There is a need to accept the diversity of family forms and prevent negative perceptions and non-acceptance of these family forms by the traditional society through terms such as broken families, marital instability and family instability. These families also need acceptance and support through laws.

Activities

Activity 1.2: My Family Genogram and Family Well-Being

Learner Outcome: At the end of this activity, the participants will learn to explore the generational trends in their family life.

Procedure: Use the following procedure to conduct this activity:

1.

Explain that a genogram is a multigenerational family tree that plots familial relationships and visually records information about social relationships and biological and psychological issues in the family across three or more generations (Galvin et al. 2008). It goes beyond a traditional family tree by allowing the user to analyse hereditary patterns and psychological factors that punctuate relationships. Genograms allow an individual to quickly identify and understand various patterns in one’s family history which may have had an influence on one’s current state of mind (Genopro, 2008).

2.

Show them how to prepare a genogram by visiting the Genopro website at http://​www.​genopro.​com/​genogram/​. For example:

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3.

Alternately ask the participants to draw their family tree with branches as generations and leaves as people.

4.

Ask the participants to draw at least a three-generational family tree or a genogram of their family:

Each horizontal line conveys a generation, and generations are joined by vertical lines.

They can start with their own generation, including self, siblings and spouses.

Their parents’ generation can be listed above their own.

Their children’s generation can be listed below their own.

Draw squares for males and circles for females, and place the age of each within. A cross within indicates dead.

List siblings/children from the oldest to the youngest, left to right.

List husband on the left and wife on the right.

Make a circle to include the family members that live together in a household.

5.

Ask them to discuss their family genogram with their partner with reference to the following questions:

a.

Do you see any continuities across generations?

b.

Do you see any changes across generations?

c.

Do you see any trends across generations?

d.

Do you see changes in the number of sub-systems in the family?

Time Estimate: 30 min

Activity 1.3: Small Group Discussion on Respecting Plurality of Family Forms

Learner Outcome: At the end of this activity, the participants will learn to understand and respect plurality of family forms.

Procedure: Use the following procedure to conduct this activity:

1.

Ask the participants to examine the household composition in their family genogram and form six groups according to their present family form:

(1)

Joint family,

(2)

Nuclear family,

(3)

Single-parent family,

(4)

Childless family,

(5)

Reconstituted/stepfamily,

(6)

Consensual union.

2.

Ask each group to discuss the reasons and implications of their family form, and share with the large group.

Questions for Discussion: Use the following questions to discuss this activity:

What did you learn about the reasons and implications of your own family type?

What did you learn about the reasons and implications of other types of families?

Why do we think our household type as normal and other family types as abnormal?

Why should we respect plurality of family forms?

How is it important for family well-being?

Time Estimate: 30 min

Democratisation of Family’s Internal Dynamics

Concepts and Theories

Family Internal Dynamics

Family internal dynamics comprises family roles and power, family relationships, family development and family activities. Family internal dynamics is influenced by family ideology.

Family Roles: Family roles are recurring patterns of behaviour developed through the interaction that family members use to fulfil family functions. Roles do not have fixed positions; they are interactive. One cannot be a husband without someone being a wife, and one cannot be a parent without someone being a child. Society provides models and norms for how certain family roles should be assumed, thus creating role expectations. Role performance is the actual interactive role behaviour. Role conflict occurs when role expectations clash or role performance is not satisfactory. Role conflicts also occur between multiple roles of the same person (Galvin et al.,