Eating out and the lifecourse: Childhood in globalizing India

EATING OUT AND THE LIFECOURSE: CHILDHOOD IN GLOBALIZING INDIA

The arrival in India of global fast food corporation McDonald’s is a harbinger of a global fast-food culture. A distinctive feature of this culture manifested in products (Happy Meal, toys), advertising, promotional events, restaurant practices (birthday parties, Roland McDonald shows, rewards for performance at school) and restaurant presentations (play areas, child-chairs) is that it puts the spotlight on children. 

My doctoral study of fast food eating practices in New Delhi, India, post-liberalization of the economy, sheds light on how  these child-centred practices instituted by McDonald’s have caught on with Nirula’s--a popular indigenous fast-food eatery I investigated, as well as several others I observed. Whereby, it is imperative to recognize that, without encountering any social or political resistance, this child-centric fast food cultural context has expanded. Its unqualified acceptance and warm reception by the consumers is self-evident in practices such as treating children, rewarding children, celebrating birthday parties and participating in Roland McDonald Shows.  Thus, the expansion as well as the popularity of this culture compels us to treat it as a global-local context.

I hold that this development provides an occasion to examine the contours of childhood in contemporary India. My contention is that contemporary childhood is constituted amidst a global-local dynamic that is played out in the fast food cultural context.

This paper demonstrates how contemporary childhood is ridden with conflicts and contradictions. On the one hand, it is a phase of play; while on the other hand, it is fraught with pressures of schooling and excelling.

This observation points to the salient aspects of the contours of this childhood viz.  a pivotal role in class formation; gendered politics and transgression.