Forum: Delhi at Eleven: Four Films by School Children in Delhi - Critical Appreciations

The short articles published in this section are responses to a group of four films made in the Childhood and Modernity project, a project in which Indian children are encouraged to explore their surroundings with video cameras. Unlike the many photography and video projects for children that have a therapeutic objective, such as aiding disaffected urban youth, the aim here is quite different: to see what children can teach us about Indian society from their unique position as children. This follows from the wider effort among anthropologists and other social scientists in recent years to look upon children not simply as objects of research but as potential collaborators and contributors to new knowledge, especially on subjects that they know more about than adults. It follows as well from increased recognition that children throughout the world exercise considerable autonomy as social actors and make important economic and cultural contributions to society.