May 20, 2023
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Maya Sen is a mental health social worker, who is volunteering
as a counsellor at a local non- government organisation run
residential childcare institution. She is also working as a project
coordinator at Kolkata Sanved, a non-government organisation
using dance movement therapy to work with survivors of gender
based violence.
Abstract
This paper describes narrative therapy interventions with young people living in
residential childcare institutions in Kolkata, India. It presents an analysis of the
contexts of poverty, violence and oppression that shape young people’s experiences
before entering care, and the ideologies that shape their experiences within residential
institutions. It then demonstrates the application of a narrative framework for working
with young people in residential care through the stories of four young women.
Key words: re-authoring; residential childcare institutions; India; narrative practice.
Key words: re-authoring; residential childcare institutions; India; narrative practice.
Introduction
I met Ria while volunteering with an NGO that works with children in need of care and protection in Kolkata, India. She was living in a residential childcare institution (CCI) because of violence in her family. Ria came to the notice of authorities when she started stealing. She disclosed that she was being bullied and that she stole with the intention of getting expelled from the CCI. She missed her family and wanted to return home. However the authorities diagnosed her with ‘conduct disorder’. When I left the NGO to undertake my master’s degree, I lost touch with Ria. I heard that over the years she had had many run-ins with the authorities until they decided she no longer qualified for help. Earlier this year I learnt that Ria was found mutilated on a street corner. Due to political corruption, her assailants were not caught. As a result, Ria was forced to return to the site of risk, while her assailants ran free. Since it was suspected that Ria knew her attackers, the community painted a picture of Ria as a ‘bad girl’ whose ‘promiscuity’ led her down this path. The protective authorities were reluctant to keep her, being unsure of her ‘victim status’.
As I got more deeply involved with the social sector, I met many people with experiences like Ria’s and wondered if there was a better way to respond to these situations.
This paper describes my exploration of the applicability of narrative practices in my work with young people living in residential childcare institutions in India. It describes the contexts of poverty and oppression that lead children to residential care, and the models of assistance and reintegration they are subjected to in care, particularly behavioural and skills training interventions that seek to prepare young people to live a ‘functional’ life, despite contexts that don’t allow the exercise of these skills. The paper presents the stories of four young women who have been working to reclaim their lives from violence and oppression, and shows how narrative practices helped to honour their acts of resistance and bring forth their skills and knowledges for survival, presenting an alternative to the pathologising accounts of their lives.
Before moving onto describing my practice, it is important to locate myself and highlight the parts of my identity that might affect my work. I am currently volunteering with a local CCI as a counsellor. I am also working as a Project Co-ordinator with Kolkata Sanved, an organisation using Dance Movement Therapy to work with survivors of gender-based violence. One of my roles within this organisation is to do casework with participants who are facing problems within the DMT sessions.
Along with that, I am a part of the economically advantaged section of Indian society as well as a part of the Savarna castes. Although I don’t identify with any religion, I am located within the religious majority. Along with this, my identities as a woman and a survivor of traumatic experience colour my perspective.
As I got more deeply involved with the social sector, I met many people with experiences like Ria’s and wondered if there was a better way to respond to these situations.
This paper describes my exploration of the applicability of narrative practices in my work with young people living in residential childcare institutions in India. It describes the contexts of poverty and oppression that lead children to residential care, and the models of assistance and reintegration they are subjected to in care, particularly behavioural and skills training interventions that seek to prepare young people to live a ‘functional’ life, despite contexts that don’t allow the exercise of these skills. The paper presents the stories of four young women who have been working to reclaim their lives from violence and oppression, and shows how narrative practices helped to honour their acts of resistance and bring forth their skills and knowledges for survival, presenting an alternative to the pathologising accounts of their lives.
Before moving onto describing my practice, it is important to locate myself and highlight the parts of my identity that might affect my work. I am currently volunteering with a local CCI as a counsellor. I am also working as a Project Co-ordinator with Kolkata Sanved, an organisation using Dance Movement Therapy to work with survivors of gender-based violence. One of my roles within this organisation is to do casework with participants who are facing problems within the DMT sessions.
Along with that, I am a part of the economically advantaged section of Indian society as well as a part of the Savarna castes. Although I don’t identify with any religion, I am located within the religious majority. Along with this, my identities as a woman and a survivor of traumatic experience colour my perspective.
The contexts of children in need of care and protection: Na ming oppression and violence
The lived experience of young people who are living in residential childcare institutions are shaped by the difficulties they encounter before coming to live in a CCI, and by issues that affect them after placement, notably the processes of institutionalisation and reintegration.
Pre-placement factors
Pre-placement factors are vulnerabilities that lead children to be institutionalised in the first place. There is a common myth that most children in institutions are orphans. There are, in practice, a variety of factors that lead to young people entering CCIs. Many children come to CCIs as a result of being exposed to traumatic experiences, including violence and abuse, family rejection, traumatic grief, commercial sexual exploitation, and community conflict (Vasudevan, 2014). Most children in CCIs have come from economically disadvantaged families. Families facing abject poverty find it difficult to care for their children, and some send them to CCIs to access resources like food and health services. Gender interacts with poverty to compound difficulties for girls. The birth of a son brings another earning family member, but the birth of a daughter is received as an added expense, especially because dowry 3 is still practiced in certain sections of Indian society. This leads to families rejecting their daughters and placing them in institutional care.
The table on the following page provides information on the categories of vulnerable children recognised by the Indian legal system for placement in CCIs. Legally these children are referred to ‘children in the need of care and protection’. (Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, India)
Pre-placement factors
Pre-placement factors are vulnerabilities that lead children to be institutionalised in the first place. There is a common myth that most children in institutions are orphans. There are, in practice, a variety of factors that lead to young people entering CCIs. Many children come to CCIs as a result of being exposed to traumatic experiences, including violence and abuse, family rejection, traumatic grief, commercial sexual exploitation, and community conflict (Vasudevan, 2014). Most children in CCIs have come from economically disadvantaged families. Families facing abject poverty find it difficult to care for their children, and some send them to CCIs to access resources like food and health services. Gender interacts with poverty to compound difficulties for girls. The birth of a son brings another earning family member, but the birth of a daughter is received as an added expense, especially because dowry 3 is still practiced in certain sections of Indian society. This leads to families rejecting their daughters and placing them in institutional care.
The table on the following page provides information on the categories of vulnerable children recognised by the Indian legal system for placement in CCIs. Legally these children are referred to ‘children in the need of care and protection’. (Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, India)
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