Introduction

Abstract

In this chapter, I question the common assumptions and dominant discussions on poor children’s digital lives. Popular narratives on poor children in global South countries emphasise that the proliferation of digital technologies can tackle poverty, discrimination, and other social inequities. These narratives embed neoliberal logic and argue that children are either victims of digital technologies and need protection or are self-motivated to use these technologies for empowerment and development purposes. Poor children’s engagements with digital technologies exceed binary categories of analysis such as resistance–oppression and agency–subjection. Contrary to these dominant explanations, the chapter makes a case that poor children in India are globally oriented, locally grounded, exploitative and exploited, ambitious and leisure-driven, creative and innovative.