International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research

Authors
Shibani Nandi

Abstract
The role of mothers in cultural reproduction, particularly in education is enormous. School education which stands as the foundation of a child’s further education and higher education relies to a great extent on the mother’s role along with other important factors. This article attempts to find different parental activities (particularly mothers) in contributing to children’s schooling process. This exploratory study, conducted in selected rural areas of Almora district in Uttarakhand examines factors that influence some micro-mothering activity. The study comprised interviews of girl children (sampled from four blocks) within the age group 6 to 18 years seeking information on parental support towards their educational aspects and in attending (reaching) school, help in studies at home, mother’s help at home, extra reading and extracurricular activities during leisure time at home, etc. As regards parental support towards their educational aspects and in attending school, majority (> 67%) of children got full support. During studies at home majority (63%) of the children took help from private tutor, a small proportion (13%) took help directly from their parents while the remaining (24%) did not take any kind of help from their parents. A few non-literate mothers who couldn't directly help them in studies, however, sat with their children while doing homework, playing the role of a 'monitor' during study hours at home. The study found several examples of parental (especially mothers) support in influencing their children’s schooling. Educated mothers took a deep interest in child’s progress and provided guidance. On the other hand, this did does not happen much when mothers were non-literate although their love and care was found to be significantly appreciable and undeniable.