CHILD LABOUR AND CHILD SCHOOLING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN

The dissertation aims to explore the impact of poverty, dynamics of poverty, credit constraints and household shocks on child labour and child schooling in Pakistan. The study also aims to reconnoitre breaches of primary education in Pakistan. To accomplish these objectives, the study has adopted a mixed method approach by using both the quantitative and qualitative information. Pakistan Panel Household Survey (PPHS-2010) has been used for the former, the only available dataset with detailed information on schooling, labour, credit constraint, shocks, poverty and other socio-economic issues— adequate to accomplish objectives of the study. The survey has detailed consumption information, through which official headcount poverty could be calculated. To capture impact of poverty dynamics (movement of poverty between 2004 and 2010), the ongoing study has also used PRHS-2004 dataset. Multinomial Logistic Regression approach was adopted to analyse all these impacts. For qualitative information, the researcher conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with parents whose children were engaged/not-engaged in child labour, and in-depth interviews with professionals and researchers on the issue by gathering information further on beliefs, attitudes, experiences and reactions, which could not be covered quantitatively. The quantitative analysis reveals that that six percent of the sampled children are involved in child labour activities with almost equal percentage from both sexes. Though poverty has been contributing to child labour, but impact of shocks, both the inflationary and household shocks, are more likely to force children to engage in labour activities. The findings suggest that access to credit improves the child schooling. Parent’s education, both the father and mother, has a positive impact on child education and negative impact on labour activities. The study also found regional and provincial variations, as there were more schooling and less labour activities among children in urban areas compared to rural areas. The results from FGDs show that poverty, hunger and low quality education are the main causes of child labour. As judged by parental assessment, private schools are delivering better education than the public schools; however, poor masses cannot afford this costly education. As discussed with various professionals, elimination of poverty and provision of free and quality education are necessary to put children away from child labour. To overcome child labour on sustainable basis, poverty reduction is very important and it could be achieved by lowering fertility rates, improving income distribution and raising adult literacy rates. Children from rural areas are more likely to be in the labour force and drop outs from school. Therefore, it seems to be more effective to focus on rural areas by raising adult employment opportunities, and reforming curriculum to improve educational quality/relevance. The government should ensure provision of productive and labour saving assets, credit associations and investment in educational infrastructure to curb child labour and promote child schooling. To break the vicious cycle of child labour elimination of poverty and provision of education has been shown to be key factors. In addition to poverty reduction, availability of schools with quality education is imperative factor in improving schooling among children. Therefore, this research suggests that poverty reduction and improving school access/quality may be the most effective strategy to reduce child labour and improve child schooling in Pakistan.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Ahmad, Usman

Contributors dc:contributor

• Singh, Pritam
• Datta, Surja

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/70nw-j345

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:f3209148-3a4e-4be8-b4bf-6928406493ec:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1