Teenage kicks - Sarah Pole

Quentin Crisp has said of teenagers that they have ‘always had the same problem – how to rebel and conform at the same time… They have now solved this problem by defying their parents and copying one another’.

The dramatic changes that have happened within the last generation in India have added to the concerns of parents and the challenges facing teenagers and for some teens their choices are more recognisable to those in the west: they have conflicting pressures from parents and grandparents, from religious elders and teachers, from their peers and from a westernized media encouraging individuality and showing sexuality more frankly than ever before. More and more they have to negotiate traditional roles and expectations with modern choices and consumer pressures.

However, as is usually the case in India, this is less than half the story. Over 300 million Indians live on less than 50p per day (UNICEF, Oct 06) and for most of them, the ability to make choices is drastically curtailed. Many families don’t have enough money to afford the books and transport needed to send children school, or they require the children to work as soon as they enter their teens. For other teenagers, lack of choice means that they will be married off too early so they will no longer be a burden on the family (for females), or so an extra pair of hands can be brought into the house (for males). Whilst in India I met one girl who was married off at twelve, so she could keep house for her new father in law after his wife had died. Although there is huge progress being made in India there is also many issues that still need to be addressed, my time in India made me realize that the right to make ones own choices and the ability to express oneself as different to those around you, is a privilege in itself, however complex it is to carry out.

Below is a snapshot of the lives of teenagers in India which represent some of the different lifestyles and options that they have. It is based on pictures I took and people I met whilst traveling round India as the DiA Co-ordinator in 2006.

Chetna, 14, Thane

1. Chetna, 14, Thane.

Chetna was sleeping on the streets when social workers from Aasara found her and persuaded her to take a place at their shelter and to return to school. Living in Mumbai it is perhaps not surprising that her ambition is to become a Bollywood actress, but she is also eager to get a good education so she will ‘never have to depend on anyone to look after me’. Chetna is one of the lucky ones. An estimated 12 million children (UNICEF) live on the streets in India, orphans, runaways and children sent to beg by their families. After being on the streets for some time it is extremely hard for the children to go back into schools or to adapt to life off the streets, even more so for girls who are usually taken into brothels once they begin to show signs of maturity.

Raju, 17, Dharmsala

2. Raju, 17, Dharmsala

Raju’s family is from the Harajan caste, one of the lowest in India, and his father walks four miles each way to sell chickpea snacks in a local town. Despite that, Raju has a clear sense that he is capable of more in life. He credits his mother for this who, he says ‘has always encouraged me to make my own decisions’. He gets up at 4am every morning to open the local gym and then goes to the market to get supplies for other houses (for which he gets 10% of the cost of the groceries). He also teaches yoga to the many tourists that come through McLoud Ganj and in between these activities he goes to school. Because his family pays for his education, he saves over 90% of the money he makes and his long term ambition is to open a yoga center of his own.

Sonali, 16, Dharmsala

3. Sonali, 16, Dharmsala (covered in the picture)

Sonali is a quiet, introverted girl who also lives in Dharmsala and wants to work in a beauty parlour. Sonali and her sister have an alcoholic and violent father. Whist community members and leaders know of the situation, no one would consider calling the police. The concept of the child having separate rights protected by the state is gaining strength, but still in its infancy in India. The prevalent idea is that parents have the right to do as they wish in their family and unless it is another family member, it is very hard to interfere.

Boy at rehabilitation centre

4. Boy at Rehabilitation Centre.

This is one of the children at another of Aasara’s projects for children addicted to narcotic substances. This boy had been on the streets since he was quite young, and was addicted to glue sniffing before staff at the centre helped him stop. The Aasara center is open twenty four hours a day and runs non-formal education programmes, as and when the children are willing they are sent to a de-addiction centre and then offered vocational training. Although the staff is very dedicated, the slide back into addiction and onto the streets is common. Unfortunately many of the children know no other lifestyle and find it hard to change, and leave their friends behind.

Ganesh Festival

5. Ganesh Festival,

This is a photo of three youths enjoying a celebration in Pondicherry. It is traditional to daub paint on people as part of the festival but, in recent years, newspapers and parents have been worrying that the teenagers drink alcohol during the festival, make too much noise, and a lot more mess with the paints than they did in previous years. Sounds familiar?

Fire damage in slum housing

6. Voluntariat

Two young boys look through the rubble of their house after a slum fire. This, I was told, was the third fire of the month to wipe out one of the slums in Pondicherry. The houses were made of straw or thatching so once fires start they spread like wildfire. In this fire only one person died which was considered a lucky escape. Though the government provides money for rebuilding, the NGO, Voluntariat, says that often children don’t go back to school after events like this because they are needed at home to rebuild or to look after younger siblings while others are doing so.