The paper examines the wider context and assumptions of the focus on childhood and children that has become important in the concerns and pre-occupations of international policy makers and researchers. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is a concentrated expression on this.

It is our contention that there is a strong eurocentric bias in the CRC which is based on the historical experience of the transtion to modern capitalist-industrial society in the west and developments in western jurisprudence. Such a perspective has very little ‘space’ for the experiences of non-western societies.

The experience of non-western societies has been different on two counts: (a) the diversity of social structures wherein the relationship of the individual to the group and of both to the State has been different; (b) colonial interventions have had a disequilibrating effect on these societies and the later are only just recovering from this. The experience of childhood is deeply embedded in these complex, historically evolved structures and processes.

The paper examines the different perceptions and experiences of childhood in India in the context of the diversity and plurality of cultures that is so characteristic of India. The experience of childhood and problems of Indian children calls for a more context - sensitive approach in dealing with issues.

A more historically and culturally rooted understanding is necessary to deal with the polarising thrust of globalisation policies.