GlimpsesofschoolingandworkinthelivesofadolescentsONTHEBRINKOFADULTHOODGlimpsesofschoolingandworkinthelivesofadolescents.doc

ON THE BRINK OF ADULTHOOD Glimpses of schooling and work in the lives of adolescents  ON THE BRINK OF ADULTHOOD Glimpses of schooling and work in the lives of adolescents Anuradha De, Claire Noronha and Meera Samson  Contents Chapter 1: The state of adolescents in India Page 4 Chapter 2: Introducing the survey Page 15 Chapter 3: Delhi Page 24 Chapter 4: Rajasthan Page 61 Chapter 5: West Bengal Page 113 Chapter 6: The schooling system Page 160 Chapter 7: Challenges ahead Page 184 Appendix I and II Page 195 Bibliography Page 205  CHAPTER ONE: STATE OF ADOLESCENTS IN INDIA 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Focusing on an invisible group 1.2 Attitude of the Indian State 1.2.1 Recent attention from policy makers 2. OVERVIEW OF ADOLESCENTS 2.1 Secondary data sources and their limitations 2.2 Number of adolescents 2.3 School participation 2.4 Schooling Attainments 2.5 Working children 2.5.1 Types of work 2.5.2 Household chores 2.6. Marriage and motherhood 3. INTERSTATE VARIATIONS 3.1 Variations in school participation 3.2 Variations in schooling attainments 3.3 Variations in schooling system 3.4 Variations in Work participation 3.5 Variations in Marriage 4. SCHEME OF THE REPORT CHAPTER 1 – THE STATE OF ADOLESCENTS IN INDIA 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Focusing on an invisible group Neither “children” nor full “adults”, adolescents are virtually invisible in the literature on Indian development. This report focuses on young people from this age group basing itself both on the limited secondary data available as well as on a one time cross sectional field survey in Delhi, Rajasthan and West Bengal. For long and for various reasons the focus of attention has been on children till the age of 14 – an age group which encompasses both childhood (6-10 years) and early adolescence (11-14 years). The concern has been on whether these children have been enrolled in school or are engaged in economic activity and