Constructions and contestations of Indigenous girlhoods in residential schools in Central India. Issue 6 (2nd November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kumari, Rashmi
• Is Part Of: Children's geographies. Volume 20:Issue 6(2022)
• Page Start: 832
• Page End: 844
• Publication Date: 2022-11-02
• Subjects: India -- schooling -- residential schools -- Adivasi children -- voice and silence; Geographical perception in children -- Periodicals; 305.23
• DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2022.2071601
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1473-3285

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper analyses the role of portacabin schools of Bastar, Central India, in historically and politically constructing the gendered subjectivities of Indigenous girls. Hailed as a prime site of development for Indigenous (Adivasi) subjectivities, the newly built residential schools are the governmental response to the decades-long conflict between the state and local Adivasi populations that have struggled against the state oppressions and encroachments. Portacabin schools emerge as a critical site of intervention where multilateral agencies contest each other to 'empower' Indigenous girls. In this paper, I analyse constructions of Adivasi girlhoods that are in line with the larger exclusionary framework according to which Adivasi communities have historically been marginalized. However, I also show the ways in which girls subvert and contest the very constructions in their strategic use of voice and silence.