Child Labour as a Human Security Problem: Evidence from India

Abstract

Contemporary economists and demographers have discussed the phenomenon of child labour using a family strategy approach, focusing their attention primarily on family resources, family constraints and the cost-benefit calculus of the family head. Diverging somewhat from this conventional path and starting from the vantage point of human security and development, this study makes a case for considering child well-being as a separate problem of its own, much as it is related to family welfare. The paper argues that non-schooling and work of children reflect not only parental income constraints but also, more importantly, the paucity of publicly provided educational opportunities; they are the products of not just parental utilitarian calculus but of deficiencies in public policy and social institutions. With a particular empirical focus on India, it demonstrates that the burden of child labour as well as the onus of educational deprivation are disproportionately borne by different population groups in the country. The paper concludes that in considering strategies to combat child labour, the school reform point of view and correlatively the expansion of an educational opportunities perspective should enter the current political and policy consciousness in a significant way.

Schooling, Child Labor, and Reserve Army Evidences from India

“…These include Weiner (1991); Ashagrie (1993); Addison, Bhalotra, Coulter, and Heady (1997); Grootaert and Patrinos (1999); Ray (2000aRay ( , 2000b; Ravallion and Wodon (2000); Bhalotra and Heady (2003); Gatti (2003a, 2003b); Goldin and Katz (2003); Bourguignon, Ferreira, and Latte (2003); Edmonds (2004aEdmonds ( , 2004b; Rosati and Deb (2002); and Khanam (2006). Empirical Studies in Indian context include those by Weiner (1991), Burra (1995), Chandrasekhar (1997), Mishra (2000), Chaudhuri and Wilson (2000), Ray (2000c), Cigno and Rosati (2000), Reddy (2000), and Majumdar (2001).…”

“…Empirical Studies in Indian context include those by Weiner (1991), Burra (1995), Chandrasekhar (1997), Mishra (2000), Chaudhuri and Wilson (2000), Ray (2000c), Cigno and Rosati (2000), Reddy (2000), and Majumdar (2001).…”

Factors Responsible for Students Dropout at Secondary Education Among Slum Children: A Study on Khulna City of Bangladesh

“…This child labor prevails because most employers are willing to exploit children and they are cheap, docile, unskilled labor. By employing children on very low wages, employers are able to maximize their profits (Majumdar, 2001).…”

Beneficial “child labor”: The impact of adolescent work on future professional outcomes

“…Numerous studies argue that child labor indicates inefficiency (e.g., Baland & Robinson, 2000;Ranjan, 2001) and point to a positive correlation between child labor and poverty, particularly in developing countries (Ray, 2000). Other literatures suggest social and psychological costs associated with child labor are not only endured by working children and their families (Greenberger & Steinberg, 1986), rather, the costs are also imposed on other population groups in the society (Majumdar, 2001). They similarly suggest that child labor is a by-product of lack of family resources and a potential challenge to receiving formal education (Walters & Briggs, 1993).…”