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Factors Fuelling the Persistence of Child Labour: Evidence from Pakistan

• Published: 16 May 2024
• Volume 17 , pages 1771–1790, ( 2024 )

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• Shahla Akram   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3857-3950 1 ,
• Mehboob Ul Hassan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3453-695X 2 &
• Muhammad Farrukh Shahzad   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6578-4139 3  

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The persistence of child labour globally can be attributed to a complex interplay of multifaceted factors. This study examines the relationship between these diverse factors of child labour, such as economic activities, working hours, hazardous conditions and overall prevalence. Logistic regression analysis was conducted using data from Pakistan’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS sixth wave). According to the data, poor quality education worsens child labour, while parental education and wealth protect against it. Gender differences, child disabilities, regional differences and non-violent behaviour all have significant impacts on labour force participation. This study highlights the complex interactions between socioeconomic and regional factors in determining child labour. It fills gaps in the existing literature by focusing on previously overlooked elements such as nonviolent behaviour and comprehensive disability interactions, as well as conducting a comprehensive examination of socioeconomic determinants. Understanding these dynamics is critical to targeted initiatives to eliminate child labour and ensure the well-being of children.

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The authors appreciate the support from the Deanship of Scientific Research under the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSPD2024R997), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Akram, S., Hassan, M.U. & Shahzad, M.F. Factors Fuelling the Persistence of Child Labour: Evidence from Pakistan. Child Ind Res 17 , 1771–1790 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-024-10141-6

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Assessment of the impact of child labour on children educational achivment

ABSTRACT Child labour is an important aspect of social and economic reality that surrounds us although it is sometimes unnoticed. It is the severe problem of the world in general and the sub-Saharan countries like Ethiopia in particular in which children are considered an asset and means to improve livelihood of their family at the expense of their education. The attempt towards the elimination of child labor in Ethiopia is still lagging compare to the rest world. This in turn is affecting adversely the accumulation of human capital. Thus, the researcherwas intended to assess the impact of Child Labour on Children’s Educational Achievement in Ganta Afeshum Woredaand give the possible solution to overcome this problem. To realize this objective, the researcher employed qualitative approach and used in depth interview, FGD, key informant interview, personal observation data collection instruments and employed descriptive research and purposive sampling technique. The researcher analyzed the finding qualitatively through interpretation, description and summarization of the data. As the finding of the study indicates child labour is sever in rural area than urban area and also girls are more exposed for child labour than boys, children are involved in domestic and non-domestic productive activities. The attitude of communities toward child labour is also positive; they consider children as valuable asset for contributing family income. The views of households on working children arise commonly from their poor knowledge about the issue and is directed by traditional outlooks of uprooting ‘milk teeth’, that is seen as a shift from childhood to adulthood. As the finding indicates, Child labour has an impact on children’s educational achievement by making them: repeated the class, absenteeism from class, drop out, make very tired, shortage of times for study and reducing the chance to access education, beside this, as the finding indicate attitude of the communities, employers, poverty coupled with limited access to credit, health and family size as well as the abusive practices are thechallenges that hamper eliminating of child labour. Finally, as the finding indicate the local administratorstrategy of employing one sector, one children and work with NGOs, private sector and public sectors paly significant role via improving the future childhood of children, however,the involvement kebele administrator in tackling the problem is at low level, their understanding about child labour and implementing the existing legislation are poor though there are adequate law pertinent to children. Key words: Child Labour, Educational Achievement, Children

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Child labour is the serious problems of the world in general and the sub-Saharan countries like Ethiopia in particular in which children are considered as asset and means to improve their livelihoods. This resulted low human capital accumulation by making children out of schooling. Child work, and the need for earnings, is almost certainly a key factor in children not accessing school and achievement good result. Thus, the researchers were intended to assess the impact of Child Labour on Children’s Educational Achievement in Ganta Afeshum Woreda. To realize this objective, the researchers employed qualitative approach and used in depth interview, FGD, key informant interview, personal observation data collection instruments and employed descriptive research and purpose sampling technique. At the end, the researchers analyzed the finding qualitatively through interpretation, description and summarization of the data.

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Nurlign Birhan

QUEST JOURNALS

Pastoralists are among the marginalized groups of society who live in a marginalized environment and whose livelihood is exposed to the vagaries of climate and harsh environmental conditions. This study explores into impediments of pastoral children's participation into schooling and education with particular emphasis on the primary school of selected Woreda, Afar Zone. To achieve this purpose, a qualitative research method was employed. Participants of the study were selected by employing purposive sampling mainly on the basis of their roles related to schooling. Seven members of parent teacher associations, 20 teachers, 4 school principals, 14 education experts and officials, a total of 45 respondents took part in the study. Data were collected through the use of different instruments: Strutted interview, focus group discussion, and document review and observation checklist. The data obtained through these data collection instruments were analysed thematically. The steps involved were organizing and preparing data for analysis, reading through all data, coding, generating a description of the settings and people and identifying categories or themes for analysis, representing descriptions and themes in the qualitative narrative and interpretation. The study identified several cultural and economic barriers such as early marriage, lack of interest for modern education, parental level of education, mobility, child labor, poverty and finance. The results also showed that existence of both supply and demand side constraints. Problem of funding, inability to attract and retain qualified teaching staff, poorly equipped schools and community perception of modern education as a threat to pastoralist way of life were the major supply related shortcomings. The demand side limitations were identified as dispersed settlement patterns, demand for child labour, bride-price and peer pressure. Mandatory seasonal mobility, frequent conflicts and conflict induced displacement were cited as the most pronounced disenabling features.Drought and harsh weather were the driving forces of mobility. Competition over water sources and pastureland coupled with border dispute and cattle raid were identified as the long standing causes of armed conflict which in turn result in school activity disruption. Thus, based on the findings, recommendation is made to planners and policymakers so as to alleviate the observed shortcomings. Improving quality of school facilities, sensitization campaign on the benefits of education, blended mode of delivery, peace dialogue to arrest recurring conflicts, self-proof of schools about their worthiness to the local community and rethinking of teacher incentive mechanisms are some of the important propositions made in view to avert the long standing legacy of educational under representation of the Afar pastoralist communities in Ethiopia.

Eshetu Fekadu

Abstract: As is the case with other developing countries of the world, child labor is also a problem in Ethiopia. Child labor is mainly caused by poverty and the socio-cultural perspectives of society, where inhabitants require the labor of their children for household tasks and agricultural activities than sending them to school. The study was conducted to assess the general situation of child labor exploitation and children’s participation in primary education in selected primary schools at Debub Omo Zone and thereby to recommend mechanisms to alleviate the problem. This study has used both primary and secondary data sources. The methods used to collect primary data include: in depth-interview, focus group discussion, and observation. Informants were selected by purposive and available sampling techniques based on variables: age, sex, religion, education, occupation and marital status and a total of 58 informants participated in the study. Findings of the study revealed that child labor became a major problem in the study area, where it is closely associated with poverty and socio-cultural viewpoint of the society, which value children as an economic asset of their families. As a result of this, children were forced to drop their schooling or not got the chance to go to school. As the study reveals, children were expected to perform both domestic activities (such as cooking, fetching water and fire wood, caring siblings and washing) and productive activities (like cultivating, planting, weeding, harvesting, and keeping cattle and goats). The finding also indicates that child labor affects the physical, social, emotional, educational and health conditions of the working child. Therefore, it needs collaborative effort of all governmental, non-governmental and family’s effort in the fight against child labor, so as to ensure children’s school participation. Keywords: Child labor, Exploitation, Participation, Debube Omo, Zone.

Dursa Aliyi

Daniel Agena

mesay tekle

mustafe muhumed

MA thesis in educational leadership and management at jigjiga university of Ethiopia

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• v.33(2); 2008 Apr

Study of Child Labor Among School Children in Urban and Rural Areas of Pondicherry

Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India

Introduction

Child labor is broadly defined as any form of economic activity for at least 1 hour per week and/or domestic chores for at least 7 hours per week and/or school labor for at least 5 hours per week.( 1 )

According to estimates, in developing countries alone there are 250 million children in the age group of 5-17 years who are toiling in economic activity - i.e., one out of every six children in the world today. In absolute terms, it is Asia (excluding Japan) that has the most child workers (approximately 61% of the world's total).( 2 ) A study done in Pondicherry determined that 15% of children in the urban school in Pondicherry were engaged in some form of economic work.( 3 ) The policy appears to have little impact on the situation, as poverty is deep rooted and compels children to work.( 4 ) Hence the complex issue of child labor and its ramification is worth investigating. It was strongly felt that children who work and attend school could have some disadvantage compared to school children who are not engaged in work. It was therefore decided to carry out the present study on working children who attend school, as it was felt that they may have special problems of having to cope with the burden of studies and work.

1) To determine the prevalence of child labor among school children in the rural and urban areas of Pondicherry; and 2) To study the factors related to child labor - like the reasons for working, problems faced by the child, workplace conditions, etc.

Materials and Methods

The study was carried out in the schools situated in the service areas of Jawaharlal Institute Rural Health Center (JIRHC) and Jawaharlal Institute Urban Health Center (JIUHC). The JIRHC and JIUHC are the rural and urban field practice areas of Jawaharlal Institute Postgraduate Medical Education and Research Center (JIPMER), Pondicherry. It was decided to conduct the study among students in classes VI to X.

For the purpose of the study, child labor was defined as any kind of work done by a school-going child for remuneration in cash or kind. For calculating the sample size, the average prevalence of school-going child labor was taken as 35% (50% in rural areas and 15% in urban areas). Using the formula 4PQ/L( 2 ) the required sample size was estimated to be 743, rounded off to 750.

The principals of the schools selected from the service area were contacted, and the purpose of the study was explained to them in detail. Permission was then obtained from the Director of Education, Pondicherry, to conduct the study in selected schools of the rural and urban areas of Pondicherry.

The questionnaire and the interview schedule were first tested among 10 students of another school, not in the service area. After making a few modifications based on the responses obtained, the questionnaire was finalized. To attain the required sample size, all the students enrolled in classes VI to X of the two schools in the JIUHC service area were included. In the schools of the JIRHC service area, lots were used to decide which classes were to be included. There were 759 eligible students in the classes of the selected schools, and only 720 students (414 urban and 306 rural) could be contacted. The children who were working were further interviewed using a pre-tested interview schedule. Interview was conducted for the working children alone in their respective houses with the help of the identification data collected in the questionnaire.

Chi-square test and t-test were used to find out the association between the attributes. Logistic regression analysis was done to find the adjusted odds ratio for the selected risk factors using SPSS software (SPSS version - 13).

The overall prevalence of child labor in the study was 32.5%. The number of students who worked in the rural and urban area was 131 (42.8%) and 103 (24.9%) respectively.

Irrespective of the area, educational level of the mother, crowding in the family, families being in debt, presence of a handicapped or alcoholic member in the family, gender and religion were significantly associated with the working child [ Table 1 ].

Logistic regression model of risk factors for having to go to work

Z = (−8.696) + (1.317) gender + (0.792) religion + (−0.292) living with family + (−0.167) father's education + (0.545) mother's education + (1.123) handicapped member + (0.727) alcoholic member + (1.022) debt + (0.525) overcrowding + (0.652) lower socioeconomic class

Ninety percent of the children in the rural area and 80.8% in the urban area said low income was the main reason for them to go to work. Overall, 78.6% visited a health facility like a health center or hospital in the past 1 year for any health complaints. About 75.9% of the rural working children reported that their employer scolded them at the workplace. The proportion of working children who were scolded by their employer at the workplace in urban area was 87.2%. In the rural area, 65.1% of the working children were beaten or scolded by their employer for working slowly. Similarly in the urban area, 62.8% of the working children were beaten or scolded for slow work.

The study revealed that 32.5% of children went to work. In the rural area, the proportion of students who worked was 42.8%; in the urban area, the corresponding proportion was 24.8%. From a community-based study conducted among school children in Nigeria, Bolanle M Fetuga et al. found that 64.5% of the school-going children were engaged in work.( 5 ) Nitin et al. in a cross-sectional study found that prevalence of child labor among the slum children in Nagpur was 21.3%.( 6 ) A community-based cross-sectional study among school children in Pondicherry found the prevalence of child labor to be 15% among school children.( 3 ) The differences in the prevalence may reflect the differences in methodology and mode of data collection and the lack of standard definition of child labor. In the informal sector of the economy, the magnitude of working children is virtually unknown because many of the establishments are not registered with the proper government regulatory agencies.

In the present study, it was observed that more children from families from the lower socioeconomic stratum (i.e., Class V of the Modified Kuppuswamy score) went to work. Nitin et al. in their study in Nagpur found that a lower socioeconomic status of the family was significantly associated with child laborers.( 6 ) The present study showed that irrespective of whether the children came from families in poverty or otherwise, in the rural areas the children went to work. This may also be because the quantification of the income of the parents in the rural area is difficult; and therefore it appears that regardless of the total household income, the child has to engage in some work. The present study revealed that in both the rural and urban areas, working children spent less time studying as compared to their nonworking counterparts. Nivethida et al. in their study from the same urban area found that half of the children felt that their work affected their studies.

Logistic regression analysis showed that children coming from families in debt had 2.78 times the risk of having to go to work compared to those from debt-free families. Presence of a handicapped member or an alcoholic in the family put the child at 3.07 and 2.07 times the risk respectively of having to go to work compared to there being no such member in the family. Children who came from overcrowded families had a higher risk of having to go to work. Children of mothers who had no formal school education had 1.73 times the risk of being sent to work compared to those of mothers who had formal school education. In the rural and urban areas where the study was conducted, the living conditions were more or less the same, and hence there was not much difference in the risks associated with the working status of a child.

Acknowledgments

We express our gratitude to Mr. Thevanithi Dass, Director of the Department of Education, Puducherry, for having given permission to conduct the study; and to the principals, teachers and especially the students who participated in the study.

Source of Support: Nil

Conflict of Interest: None declared.