Introduction

The unprecedented constant changes that are reshaping our daily life impose challenges that our policymakers cannot disregard. Never before have we lived in such a technologically centric society bringing about sharply delineated and crisp socio-cultural permutations in ways, norms and practices surrounding work, play, socializing and of course, the family, parenting and child rearing.

Today’s children are not addicts of Les Trois Petits Cochons and Chaperon Rouge, neither will they be interested in Un Dimanche à la Maison, nor on the legend of Santa Claus and his flying reindeer! These are all myths, fantasies and delusions, which our children forcefully reject. “Maman a menti!”, argues my granddaughter. Indeed, our children are totally a new species demanding a new habitat. They have been invaded by an irreversible and exceptional development with everlasting impact. They are already imbued by the most powerful technology mankind has ever created: Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has now become pervasive!

The AI revolution and its impact on parenthood

We have all witnessed this recently in November 2024 when our smartphones were making decisions for us; and yet we are still at the embryonic stage of the AI Revolution. AI has the ability to construct and deconstruct any information and as parents, we are all concerned about its impact on our children’s future behaviours. Absolutely… because we are not prepared to live in such a valiant new world. Very often, we fail to understand that our relationship with our children will necessarily be via technology.

AI is a simulation of human intelligence (hence, artificial) into machines set to do things that we normally rely on humans; to do things in a human-like manner, and almost always better than humans, be it in data analysis, automation, medical applications, or surveillance capability. With continued advancement in technologies, AI would undeniably be the guiding tool for the future generation and would never stop progress. While taking the advantages of AI to move forward, we need to acknowledge that its greatest deficit is emotional intelligence.

Parents of tomorrow will have to learn to nurture healthy relationships between children and technologies for which preparedness is necessary. Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, renowned psychologists, and creators of the Self-Determination Theory, postulate that new parenting skills and attitudes need to be framed to live up to this altogether new environment. Parents tend to reward children for good results and behaviour and for reinforced motivation. Parents, however, very often fail to realise that reward for one is also punishment for another or for another time and is not a driver for change. It reinforces staticity and does not motivate for change.

In the context of the dominance of AI, smart phone, smart TV, smart city, etc., parenthood should also be reviewed and made smart. It is argued that there are three fundamental psychological craves that should guide smart parenthood: firstly autonomy, secondly competence and thirdly relatedness. Parents should give autonomy to their children in their choice of applications, internet sites and channels for learning, investigation, research and play. However, their choice should be an informed choice! Children should be given the liberty to set their own rules.

On the other hand, promoting competence implies fostering creativity among children so that they become creators rather than consumers of technology. Turn them from zero to hero in software programming and development, data science and analytics. Bearing in mind the emotional deficit of AI, parents should relate closely with their children by participating in their digital development, building their confidence, discussing on the benefits, risks, hazards and complexities of growing up with AI.

Knowledge gap and professionalisation of parenthood

The biggest problem for the future is that not all parents are capable and empowered enough to enable their children to navigate through the complexities of this new wave of technologies. As the world progresses further in AI, imbalance in parent-children relationships will deepen, and parents would fail to catch up, deepening the knowledge gap, and causing damaging results to effective parenthood. Parents are already stunned by the dexterity with which very young children manipulate smart phones.

There is hence a pressing need for parenthood to be professionalised. Professionalization is a process whereby expert knowledge (on AI, family support system, sexual and reproductive health, gender stereotypes, social dysfunction psychological imbalance, emotional, intellectual and physical disabilities, etc.) penetrates into the everyday practice of childcare and development. The everyday and conventional ideas of childcare, fostering on parents as the sole decision-maker, have become obsolete.

Professionalisation of parenthood, nevertheless, does not imply usurpation of the roles of parents… they are irreplaceable! It delineates a reconstruction of the responsibility zones of experts and parents in fostering autonomy, competence and relatedness in the process of parenting. However, there are cases where parents, subject to negative externalities like poverty, drug and alcohol addiction or depressive disorder, shy away from their roles, at which specialised care as alternative to the family is sought. Provision of alternative care falls within the orbit of professionalisation of parenthood.

The way forward

During the previous government, the ministry of Gender equality and family welfare has been at the zenith of stagnancy, with archaic cosmetic approaches and obsolete structures that reinforced mediocrity and the ballgame. Going against the UN Resolution of 2010, the ministry scrapped the Alternative Care Unit, resulting into a disorganized and poor harmonization of the alternative care programme.

Despite the long existence of a ministry for Gender equality, gender is still a term which is either not understood or misunderstood among the population and more so, among many decision-makers. Integrating gender mainstreaming into the development agenda in different ministries has been a complete failure, because of failure of support structures, monitoring mechanism, but most importantly, because of lack of real political commitment. The outdated concept of masculinity has never been challenged and has continued to perpetuate patriarchy at all levels, even at high decision-making instances, putting all processes for gender equity at standstill.

Programmes for male engagement in the process of gender mainstreaming and in addressing the problem of gender-based sexual violence stopped abruptly at the ministry, with no follow-up. There are programmatic, structural and institutional hurdles that need be addressed as a matter of urgency.

We look forward for a shift towards a broader concept of gender equality, an adoption of a strategic intervention for gender mainstreaming, which necessarily implies adoption of a new framework of masculinity and femininity (especially as we move towards the rightful recognition of LGBTQ people, and their full integration and participation in our daily life, as citizens with equal rights), promoting the effective integration of a gender perspective into the mainstream political agenda, and gendering a shift in the institutional and organisational cultures of decision-making.

The challenge for the ministry of Gender equality and family welfare is to revamp its strategy, structure and programme to ensure that gender remains the centre of all development agenda, and to pave the way for the professionalisation of parenthood, tuned to the exigencies of the new world order. This entails having a new blueprint, with clear-cut business plans for all units of the ministry. The new minister of Gender equality and family welfare is a hope for change. Her success will be sketched by her commitment and determination of not doing business as usual.