Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs

This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected labour market, social policy and migration studies prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language – English or French – with a summary in the other. The opinions expressed and arguments employed here are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD SUMMARY 1 1. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 19% of children aged 5-14 in Asia and the Pacific are economically active (ILO, 2002). These 127.3 million children constitute 60% of all child labourers worldwide. The aim of this study is to better understand child labour in South Asia through in-depth case studies of the child labour experience in three countries: Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam. 2. Several themes about child labour emerge in examining data from these three countries. First, any discussion of child labour needs to consider wage work as well as unpaid work including household production activities. Children who work in one type of activity are more likely to work in other activities as well. Thus, focusing on only one aspect of child employment seriously understates child labour supply. Second, there is some evidence of important substitutions of child and adult labour across different household activities that may be very costly for the welfare of the child but would be missed by a focus on wage work or work in a household business alone. 3. This study also finds that existing child labour policy appears to be seriously misdirected. First, almost all efforts against child labour are directed at manufacturing employment, but most child labour (like adult employment) is in agriculture. Second, existing government policies largely focus on preventing children from working and many high-income nations even threaten to use trade sanctions to punish countries with high levels of child labour. These approaches ignore the reasons why children work. 4. Most of the documented variation in child labour is at the household level. Thus, household factors are more important than community or child specific-factors in determining child labour supply. The earnings opportunities available to children within the household, household composition, and household living standards are three key factors that appear particularly important in explaining why children work. Cultural factors may also play some role in child labour supply. Across countries, …