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Exploring Mother-Daughter Relationships and Mothers’ Aspirations for their Adolescent Daughters: Early Evidence from Umang Project in Rural Jharkhand

Pooja Kini, Project Concern International India
Dr. Sudipta Mondal, PCI India
Sushmita Mukherjee, PCI India

Data reveals high rate of early marriage and pregnancy, and low literacy among women in Godda and Nala blocks in Jharkhand. Education is considered as the primary means to delay age of marriage for girls. Since mother’s aspirations for their children is closely linked to their educational outcomes it is crucial to examine their relationship with adolescent daughters to enable the younger generation to defy social norms such as child marriage. The goal of the study is to explore the nature of mother-daughter relationships, in terms of aspirations for education and career goals of the daughters. Project Concern International India conducted primary data collection with ‘mother daughter pair’ as a part of a baseline study for an evaluation. The study shows that for 65% mothers’ career aspirations do not match with their daughter. We further looked into communication and negotiation between the pair thereby identifying barriers and support system for realization of aspirations. The paper highlights the need for mothers’ role in child’s upbringing to be strengthened for more efficient inter-generational transfer of knowledge and skills, as tools for empowerment. The study shows that if the mother is empowered she can be the banner carrier for the change in society.

Keywords: Intergenerational relations, Mixed methods research

See paper.

  Presented in Session 106. Gender Disparities and Disadvantage: Perspectives from India