https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i4.037
The ‘Connected’ Mother: Maternal Care and Responsibility in the Mother-Child-Teacher Nexus in Digital Kerala
FATHIMA HIBA
Research Scholar
Department of English, PSMO College, Tirurangadi, Malappuram
Affiliated to the University of Calicut
Email: habbyhibzz@gmail.com
HASHIMA KANNETH
Research Scholar
Department of English, PSMO College, Tirurangadi, Malappuram
Affiliated to the University of Calicut
Email: hashikanneth@gmail.com
Abstract: In an era that prophesies the emergence of AI mothers and ‘pregnancy robots’, anxieties about technological encroachments on parenthood emphasise the need to reconsider the existing forms of digitalisation and their resultant impacts on the notion of ‘motherhood’. This chapter seeks to examine how digitalisation has reshaped the functionalities and expectations of maternal responsibility in Kerala, particularly within the mother-child-teacher nexus. To this end, the chapter will analyse how digitality has transformed the mother’s participation in the child’s educational growth, particularly through the ease of communication between the mother and the education industry. It will examine whether digitality has lightened maternal responsibility or if it has increased maternal pressure, especially in reference to the romanticized notion of the ‘good mother’.
The study intends to employ a mixed-method approach, combining an online survey on young mothers conducted through Google Forms and in-depth qualitative interviews with older mothers. The latter will focus on an older generation of mothers who have limited familiarity with digital tools, thereby offering insight into their lived experiences of motherhood. This comparative framework allows for an exploration of the evolution of maternal practices under digitalisation, while also highlighting the unintended outcomes that accompany digitally mediated motherhood.The study illuminates ideas of invisible labour, unequal access, and cultural pressures that are often left out of celebratory discourses about “Digital Kerala” and “digital motherhood.” Most of the research concerning the idea of digital motherhood has emerged from Eurocentric contexts, and this study will centralise this idea in Kerala’s diverse socio-culture, which often juxtaposes the digital with the traditional.
Keywords: Digital Motherhood, Maternal Practices, Parenthood, Maternal Pressure, Maternal Agency
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