Children´s right to political participation: the case of rights-based climate activism in India

Children and youth are increasingly recognised as competent citizens who are capable of participating in political activism. This has especially been evident in children’s participation in climate activism and litigation.

There is an urgent need, however, to contextualise the conditions which allow or inhibit young people to be political participants, and especially for including case studies from countries where political participation in general is curtailed by semi-authoritarian states.

With the aim of providing such contextualisation, the present project proposes an ethnographic study of NGOs and young activists in India – the world’s most populous country affected by increasing autocratisation – who work with children’s rights and environmental rights.

The findings will be used to develop new theory on the social and political conditions for young people to participate politically, making a significant contribution to the emerging field of critical child rights studies.

I will implement the project independently over three years while placed at Lund University (Sweden), BML Munjal University (India), and Antwerp University (Belgium).

At least three solo-authored peer-reviewed journal articles will result from the project, but there is also scope for further collaborative articles.

The researcher will work in close collaboration with NGOs and youth in India, ensuring that the project’s findings will also have practical impacts for its participants.