Alternative Income Generation and Entry into Worst Forms of Child Labor Theory and evidence from ragpickers, porters, and child domestics in Nepal

Executive Summary Alternative income generating activities (IGA) for vulnerable families have the potential to increase or decrease child labor. Rising family incomes may make families less dependent on the child's economic contribution or better able to afford schooling expenses. Rising income may help families avoid sending a child away or the circumstances that lead to child migration or child trafficking. However, they may also be associated with changing employment opportunities to children. Activities in which children can participate may generate increases in the number of working children. While activities that substitute for children may push children out of employment in the household, perhaps into school, unemployment, or other types of work away from their family. In the end, theory cannot predict the impact of IGA on child work or even participation in activities that are considered worst forms. The expected impacted of a growth in IGA on perceptions of child welfare then depends on both the type of IGA and how different types of work are viewed in a country. Article 3 of ILO Convention 182 allows considerable discretion for countries in how they define worst forms of child labor. A worst form of child labor can include any "work that is likely to endanger the health, safety, or morals of children." The accompanying recommendation (190) draws attention to cases where children are exposed to abuse, work in an unhealthy environment, work long hours (including during the night), or face confinement to the employer's premises. Ragpicking, portering, and child domestic service are among the 16 worst forms of child labor in Nepal as identified by the Government of Nepal's National Master Plan, and they are among the 7 worst forms of child labor targeted for elimination under the 2001 Time-Bound Program (TBP) in Nepal. The original purpose of this study was to analyze how the structure of economic activity in the child's parents' environment is correlated with participation in domestic service, ragpicking, and portering in Nepal. Ultimately, little is found to suggest a clear connection (consistent with the theoretical ambiguity discussed above). Hence, this study's more substantive 2 contribution is to show how it is possible to analyze the correlates of selection into worst forms of child labor. With nothing more than data on children in a worst form as might be collected from targeted surveys, it is impossible to infer why children select into a given worst form. This …