Children’s right to play in South Asia: A systematic literature review

Umbreen Kousar, Mimi Hanida Abdul Mutalib

Abstract


The right to play is not a privilege but a fundamental right of every child. The play has significant advantages, including physical, emotional, psychological, and cognitive. This study uses the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) Approach to review the status of the right to play in eight South Asian countries (i.e., Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives) concerning measures taken by the countries to implement Article 31 of the UNCRC and the General Comment No. 17 (GC17). Article 31 and the GC17 were used as the framework of analysis. Through google search, google scholars, and other sources of knowledge, four papers were found directly talking about one or two aspects of children’s right to play only in four countries, i.e., Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The SLR revealed that empirical studies lack information about the conditions, challenges, arrangements, and environments related to the right to play in South Asian countries. Besides the absence of studies on tackling challenges and arranging or ensuring specific conditions -as envisaged in the GC17, studies analyzing factors impacting children’s play are absent. These factors may include: temporal, spatial, and psychological. Considering this SLR, it is concluded that within the paradigm of children’s rights including the anthropology of children and youth, children’s right to play in South Asia has received extremely little attention. Thus, the study suggests that special issues should be dedicated by the journals on children’s right to play in South Asia and beyond in other parts of the global south.

 

Keywords: Anthropology, children, children’s rights to play, refugee, South Asia, UNCRC


Keywords


Anthropology, children, children’s rights to play, refugee, South Asia, UNCRC

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References


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