Every part of the universe has various challenges that it faces in nurturing children. These challenges range from religious, cultural and social factors. However, stakeholders develop multiple ways to deal with these challenges. The difficulties that exist in the various parts prove them inefficient in many ways. For example, the affected children fail to realize their dreams, and this translates to ineffective future society. In this assignment, it is going to elaborate on the influence of religious, social and cultural factors in bearing children in the global south. In the first part of the solution, it will elaborate on the meaning of the global south, then focus on social, cultural and religious factors that affect the lives of children in these countries.
Global South.
Global South refers to the countries which belong to less developed regions. For example, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. These countries are faced with various challenges including poverty, cultural dominance, poor education among other factors. These difficulties differ Global South from the Global North which is highly developed, and many people are more productive compared to the less developed countries. Apart from the poor development in these third world countries, there are specific religious, cultural and social practices that affect children learning and rearing in these nations (Berk, 2017: p.79). They include the following: –
Cultural factors.
Culture refers the way of life of people in a given society. The Global South countries have a specific idea of life that influence childbearing in various ways. The first main practice that affects child development is the female genital mutilation (Triandis, 2018: p.67). Circumcising of the girl child causes different health complication to the health of female children. During the genital mutilation process, elders take out children from school with the purpose of performing circumcision. The children who undergo the genital mutilation process are not free to mingle with others. They feel ashamed about what they have experienced through in their lives. However, women who are the once close to girls have nothing to do about the situation. The men do not consider them in core decision making in the society (Lau and Ng, 2014: p.430). In some circumstances, the action affect the psychology of the child and she may decide to run away from home, thus making it difficult for the parent to provide a stable ground for child development.
Another cultural factor in the Global South is early marriages. In many cases, elders are the once who arrange for these marriages. Both girls and boys who have undergone the circumcision process are fit for marriage. However, the action affects the way the child develops. For examples, when the elders are acting the other group of children watches it, and they judge whatever they are seeing. They drop out of school, and the future generation becomes illiterate generation ever.
Consequently, some of these marriages that elders organize are not matching, younger girls get married to older men who may be having diseases and they transfer them to the children. Some of the children end up with psychological and mental problems because there is no one to help them in their condition (Yeung, Desai and Jones, 2018). Some children watch others going to school and they feel like crying. The early marriage makes them have low self-esteem.
However, some practices belong to a specific group of community in the third world countries. For example, some communities do not embrace education; children who have reached primary school drop out of school in lower classes. These communities value their property such as cattle more than education. The children who drop out of school go and look after animals (Espelage, 2014: p.260). The capability of decision making such children have is so narrow that they end up messing their lives in most cases. The aim of education is not only to prepare children for quality jobs in future but also to provide them with the capability to make the various decision concerning challenges they face in life (Chambers, 2014: p.20). The children who do not get the opportunity for education have poor decision-making techniques and this poor skill also influence the generation that comes in the future. They experienced more regrets than many other children.
Religious factors
From the research, the Global South region is made up of various religions. For example, some people belong to Muslim, Hindu and Christian belief. The way each of these religions operate shapes the life of the child that belongs to them. For instance, some specific people come up with strange believe in their prayers as a result of the misinterpretation of the Bible. One of the beliefs is that people should not take their children to hospital as God heals every disease (Danaei, Andrews, Sudfeld, Fink, McCoy, Peet, Sania, Fawzi, Ezzati and Fawzi, 2016). The parents that belong to these types of religion usually follow the instruction to the latter. However, the consequences of such actions are that the life of the child keeps on deteriorating as the child grows. The disease that the child would have escaped when he or she would have taken to vaccination keeps on affecting the child negatively. Sometimes the situations worsen, and the child ends up dying (Burman, 2016: p.70). From Bronfenbrenner theory, it explains that the environment the child develops shapes out the how the child grows. Therefore, if the religion does not permit the use of the drug, the health of the child deteriorates.
Apart from the above religion factors, there is the issue of dressing. Every religion allows specific dressing code to its members. For example, the way Muslims put on differs with how the Children puts on thus influencing child development life. For instance, when a Muslims child is growing, his or her parents embrace full dresses that cover most parts of the body. The child adapts the particular dressing code and sometimes see other people different from him or her. Besides that, the type of food that every religion takes differs from the other. An example, Christians allow consumption of pork. However, Muslims have a different opinion, they do not consume pork. The idea shapes the life of the child in that, the Muslims children also grow considering eating of pork as an evil action.
Social factors
Social factors deal with the lifestyle of the children including how he or she can socialize with various people in society. However, every community in the Global South have varied perception to how the child should socialize with other members of the society. There are situations where the child is not permitted to mingle with other children. However, these restrictions have impacts on the development of the child. For example, restricting the child from socializing affects his or her capability to speak his or her mind publicly. Many children who grow up from remote areas lack the explosion and courage to talk about whatever they feel is right or wrong (Masten, 2014: p.19). They feel shy. These circumstances make the child be a poor decision maker, they grow following the decision other people (Black, Walker, Fernald, Andersen, DiGirolamo, McCoy, Fink, Shawar, Shiffman and Devercelli, 2017: p.80). On the other side, the children who can socialize with their classmates, neighbors and friends can appreciate what other people do. The capability to socialize assist in making a crucial decision while interacting with other people. For example, accepting the way people come about through socializing with the members of different class or religion.
One of the countries that reside in the global south is Kenya while in the worldwide north there is America. The difference that comes in matters of childbearing in these two countries is that when it comes to child marriage, in Kenya every community have a specific time they consider marriage acceptable, however, in America there is a universal time for every family in the country (Boyden, 2015: p.190). When the time reaches union is always public, and everyone in that society recognizes it. Apart from that, before marriage the participant still pursues education goal, thus meaning that marriage is not a priority in the global North country such as America.
Despite the Global South countries like Kenya having cultural, social and religious issues that prove challenge to the children development in the region, there are organizations which stand firm to protect these children. One of the organizations is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Bornstein and Bradley, 2014: p.19). The role of this organization is to ensure that the child has a conducive environment to develop regardless of the geographical area they come from in the world. They are important rights the children must have to prosper in life. Some of the rights include having an environment free from abuse on the rights of the child, for instance, the right to life. Secondly, the child should express his or her thoughts freely without victimization. Apart from that, there is the right to education that every child should enjoy. Factors such as the religious, social and cultural matters should not block the child from achieving his or her dreams in education.
Conclusion
The different way of life in global south countries affect children both positively and negatively. However, it is important for parents and other organizations to team up and fight the old style of treating the children. Matters such as education is a key aspect that any child should not miss.
References
Berk, L., 2017. Development through the lifespan. Pearson Education India. Vol.3, pp.78-199
Black, M.M., Walker, S.P., Fernald, L.C., Andersen, C.T., DiGirolamo, A.M., Lu, C., McCoy, D.C., Fink, G., Shawar, Y.R., Shiffman, J. and Devercelli, A.E., 2017. Early childhood development coming of age: science through the life course. The Lancet, 389(10064), pp.77-90.
Bornstein, M.H. and Bradley, R.H., 2014. Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development (pp. 18-21). Routledge.
Boyden, J., 2015. Childhood and the policy makers: A comparative perspective on the globalization of childhood. In Constructing and reconstructing childhood (pp. 185-219). Routledge.
Burman, E., 2016. Deconstructing developmental psychology. Routledge. Vol.2 pp.67-87
Chambers, R., 2014. Rural development: Putting the last first. Routledge. Vol.3 pp. 12-39
Danaei, G., Andrews, K.G., Sudfeld, C.R., Fink, G., McCoy, D.C., Peet, E., Sania, A., Fawzi, M.C.S., Ezzati, M. and Fawzi, W.W., 2016. Risk factors for childhood stunting in 137 developing countries: a comparative risk assessment analysis at global, regional, and country levels. PLoS medicine, 13(11), p.e1002164.
Espelage, D.L., 2014. Ecological theory: Preventing youth bullying, aggression, and victimization. Theory into Practice, 53(4), pp.257-264.
Lau, J. and Ng, K.M., 2014. Conceptualizing the counseling training environment using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 36(4), pp.423-439.
Masten, A.S., 2014. Global perspectives on resilience in children and youth. Child development, 85(1), pp.6-20.
Triandis, H.C., 2018. Individualism and collectivism. Routledge.
Yeung, W.J.J., Desai, S. and Jones, G.W., 2018. Families in southeast and South Asia. Annual Review of Sociology, (0).
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