Economic and Cultural Forces in the Child Labour Debate: Evidence from Urban Bangladesh

Abstract

The relative influence of economic and cultural forces is a key area of debate amongst those exploring the causes of child work, and in wider discourse on household labour deployment. Data from Dhaka slums suggest that household poverty and income stability are important economic determinants of children's work. However, economic forces alone cannot explain child-work deployment. Evidence on the availability of adult household members to replace child contributions, and on gender and age differentials in household labour deployment, point towards the importance of cultural factors. Key cultural determinants of children's work include gender norms, age subordination and the cultural importance of avoiding idleness.Child-work, Economic Determinants, Cultural Determinants, Household Poverty, Income Stability, Bangladesh,

Youth, gender and livelihoods in West Africa: Perspectives from Ghana and the Gambia

“…Most studies of gender and poverty focus on adult women (and to a lesser extent, adult men) (see, for example, Chant with Craske, 2003;McIlwaine and Datta, 2004), while research on livelihoods among young people tends to neglect gender dimensions insofar as it often concentrates on paid labour and thereby underplays the householdbased work performed by girls (see Lloyd-Evans, 2002;Subrahmanian, 2002). How the working practices of young people become gendered also remains underresearched whether from viewpoints that stress socialisation through cultural practices or parental perceptions of the quality of education on the one hand, or attempts to build economic models that link decision-making, poverty and child labour on the other (see Ray, 2000;Delap, 2001;Bhalotra, 2003;Harper et al, 2003).…”

“…Great care needs to be taken, therefore, when considering the merits of interventions such as the International Labour Office's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) which urge a tighter prohibition of child labour or regard education as an altenative to work (ILO, 2002, p. 1). Indeed, studies show inconsistent relationships between work and school attendance and problems assessing the cost-benefits of education against other potentially pro-poor interventions (Akabayashi and Psacharopoulos, 1999;Delap, 2001;OECD, 2003). Moreover, the general case for an education -economic growth link may mean little to an individual; hence some evidence that children offered access to education in place of work do not take up the opportunity or sustain their involvement, and that young people express concerns about long hours for little remuneration, the lack of social connectedness gained through leisure, and the inadequate quality of education as components of lifecourse poverty (White, 1996;Boyden et al, 1998;Woodhead, 2001).…”

Urban Poverty in Bangladesh: Causes, Consequences and Coping Strategies

“…41 Estimates of child labour (five to 14 years) in Dhaka range from one in three (Delap 2001) to one in five (World Bank 2007;Garrett 2004), with participation starting at an earlier age for boys (Delap 2000;. 42 Our survey finds 15 and 17 percent of households have female and male children under the age of 15 working.…”

Combating Child Labour - A South African Challenge

“…The relative influence of economic and cultural factors are critical areas of debate in the discourse on household labour deployment. Data from Dhaka slums in Bangladesh suggest that income instability and household poverty are significant determinants of child labour (Delap, 2001).…”