This book provides new evidence of the theoretical and empirical causes and consequences of child labor. In so doing, the chapters provide a unique set of policy prescriptions that are applicable to both the developing countries that make up the case studies of the volume, as well as other countries more broadly. The volume is constructed to inform policy with rigorous analysis. However, unlike most academic studies, the language and flavour of the volume is largely non-technical, while the policy recommendations are practical.
The volume is made up of three sections.The first section builds on the existing literature and provides new theoretical insights into child labor. Section 2 provides empirical evidence from both quantitative and qualitative case studies on child labor from across Asia, Africa and Latin America. This section provides information from studies conducted in Brazil, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, India and Vietnam. Section 3provides policy recommendations.
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The aim of this volume is to present new information to complement existing work on child labour. There is a large literature on child labour, which has attracted thorough reviews, most comprehensive of which is Edmonds (2007).
Edmonds (2007) decomposes the child labour literature into two categories. The first focuses on defining child labour, which discusses issues related to legal definitions that help statistical agencies to account for child labour. This research also preoccupies itself with scoping different activities that should or not be included in the child labour definition.
The second major part of this literature focuses on understanding why children work. This strand of the literature focuses on both the theory and practice of child labour, usually from an economic perspective. This literature primarily defines child labour in terms of time allocations, which is usually preferred by academics for empirical work. It studies the determinants of child labour to inform policymakers as to how to eradicate the phenomenon. This literature focuses on how family characteristics affect child work as well as how exogenous shocks, such as income or price changes as well as policies, affect it. This literature often discusses the consequences of child labour, focusing on health and well-being outcomes, for example (Posso 2019).
This volume primarily fits into the second strand of this literature. While defining child labour is important, each chapter adopts its own definition often aiming to facilitate empirical analysis. The volume presents both theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding child labour, primarily from an economic perspective.
The volume is made up of three sections. The first section builds on the existing literature and provides new theoretical insights into child labour. Section 1.2 provides empirical evidence from both quantitative and qualitative case studies on child labour from across Asia, Africa and Latin America. This section provides information from studies conducted in Brazil, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, India and Vietnam. Section 1.3 provides policy recommendations.
The remainder of this chapter sets the stage for the ensuing analysis by first discussing how governments usually define child labour. Then, the chapter discusses the most commonly known consequences of child labour to highlight why communities should care about it. Finally, the chapter discusses leading policies identified as negatively impacting child labour. Given that comprehensive reviews exist, the focus of this chapter is to discuss the latest thinking on the topic.
1.2 How Do Governments Usually Define Child Labour?
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a commitment to eradicate child labour in all its forms by the year 2025 (Goal 8.7). However, child labour, according to UN guidelines, generally does not refer to all work activities that a child undertakes. In 2008 at the 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, convened by the ILO, the UN system agreed on a definition of child labour to allow for the collection and analysis of data. Accordingly, a child is considered a labourer when he or she lies within the following categories: (1) is between the ages of 5 and 11 and undertakes at least 1 hour of economic work or 21 hours of unpaid household services per week; (2) is aged 12 to 14 years and undertakes at least 14 hours of economic work or 21 hours of unpaid household services per week; and (3) is between the ages of 15 and 17 years and undertakes at least 43 hours of economic or unpaid household services per week (UNICEF 2017). A child is also identified as a labourer if she/he is engaged in the worst forms of child labour, which include slavery, forced labour, prostitution, trafficking or exposure to hazards.
It is using these definitions that we now know that despite declining in recent decades, the latest estimates suggest that approximately 168 million children aged between 5 and 17 are engaged in some type of child labour (UNICEF 2019). Figure 1.1 presents the percentage of children aged 5 to 17 years in child labour, by sex and region. The figure highlights that using this definition, approximately 30% of children in Southern and Western Africa are engaged in child labour, compared to between 5% and 10% in the Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa. On average, using this definition generates data that also suggests that boys are more likely to work than girls. This issue is dealt with below.
Fig. 1.1
Percentage of children aged 5 to 17 years in child labour, by sex and region. (Source: UNICEF (2017). Notes: Regional estimates represent data from countries covering at least 50% of the regional population of children aged 5 to 17. Data coverage was insufficient to calculate a global estimate and regional estimates for East Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, North America, South Asia and Western Europe)
There are at least two important problems with this definition. The first problem is related to the stepwise definition of child labour. For example, if an 11-year-old child is working in a family farm for an hour a week, he or she is a worker. However, that same child ceases to be a worker on their 12th birthday. This ad hoc distinction assumes that child well-being, lifestyle and pressures can arbitrarily and drastically change from one day to the next. Perhaps adopting a more linear approach would be useful. Indeed, economic researchers aim not to classify child labour in a dichotomous fashion. Rather, many economists employ child work hours to test the relationship between child work and various outcomes (Posso 2019).
The second problem is related to the distinction between work activities and unpaid household services. The current definition structures treat unpaid household work as less problematic for children than economic work. The issue with this definition is that household chores can be potentially harmful by exposing children to dangerous chemicals, tools and abuse (Posso 2019). Importantly, this distinction can also underplay the extent to which girls work, given that they are more likely to work at home (Bhukuth 2008). It is perhaps for this reason that Save the Children (2019) defines child work to include all kinds of productive or domestic work, paid or unpaid, in the family home or externally, both in rural and urban contexts.
1.3 Why Should We Care About Child Labour?
Child labour is both a symptom and a cause of poverty. Low-income households use child labour to meet their basic needs, using child labour to boost income to help achieve a minimal subsistence standard (Basu and Van 1998). The problem is that child labour can also have important long-term consequences for adults once they grow up. Child labour is associated with adverse health consequences, which can last until adulthood, and lower levels of educational attainment and has been found to lead to lower earnings in adulthood (ILO 2015; Posso 2017, 2019).
As a result, child labour not only plagues the poor but can potentially condemn poor children into a life of poverty, generating a vicious poverty cycle. Basu (1999) conceptualises a model that explains how this works. Mainly, poor households that are unable to meet a minimal subsistence standard send their children to work. In turn, work deprives children of education and skill acquisition. Consequently, the generation of child workers become poor, unskilled adult labourers. This cycle of poverty fuels child labour in the next generation.
1.4 What Can We Do About Child Labour?
Policies that aim to ban child labour are likely to be ineffective for two reasons. First, it is difficult to ban child labour when it predominantly occurs in the informal economy (Bhukuth 2008). Family businesses, domestic work and artisan work mostly fall outside of the regulatory framework of governments, particularly in developing countries and in rural areas. This is particularly so for the rural sector, where most child labour exists (UNICEF 2019). As a result, children that work are not protected by existing legislation.
Second, child labour occurs in relatively poorer households, such that banning may propel households further into poverty. Many households survive thanks to the financial or in-kind contributions made by children’s work; consequently, banning such support would risk pushing households below a minimum subsistence standard (Bhukuth 2008). Bharadwaj et al. (2013) examine the consequences of India’s Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986, which banned child labour. Using survey data conducted before and after the ban, they show that the ban decreased child wages, which in turn resulted in an increase in child labour. Their results suggest that families use child labour to reach a minimum subsistence standard, so when child wages dec...
