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Child Labour as a Human Security Problem: Evidence from India

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  • Manabi Majumdar

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Manabi Majumdar, 2001. "Child Labour as a Human Security Problem: Evidence from India," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 279-304.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:29:y:2001:i:3:p:279-304
    DOI: 10.1080/13600810120088877
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Canagarajah, Sudharshan & Coulombe, Harold, 1997. "Child labor and schooling in Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1844, The World Bank.
    2. Jeni Klugman, 1997. "Decentralization: A survey from a child welfare perspective," Papers iopeps97/6, Innocenti Occasional Papers, Economic Policy Series.
    3. Cochrane, S. & Kozel, V. & Alderman, H., 1990. "Household consequences of high fertility in Pakistan," World Bank - Discussion Papers 111, World Bank.
    4. Sudhir Anand and Amartya Sen, 1994. "Sustainable Human Development: Concepts and Priorities," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-1994-03, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    5. Hugh Cunningham & Pier Paolo Viazzo, 1996. "Child Labour in Historical Perspective 1800-1985: Case Studies from Europe, Japan and Colombia," Papers hisper96/1, Historical Perspectives.
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    Cited by:

    1. Amit K. Giri & S.P. Singh, 2016. "Child Labour and ‘Nowhere’ Children in Post-reforms India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 10(1), pages 97-110, April.
    2. Kazi Abusaleh & M. Rezaul Islam & Md. Mokter Ali & Mohammad Asif Khan & Md. Shahinuzzaman & Md. Imdadul Haque, 2022. "Prevalence of Economic Exploitations and Their Determinants Among Child Labourers in Dhaka City, Bangladesh: A Mixed-Method Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(1), pages 87-106, February.
    3. Wendy Olsen & University of Manchester, 2006. "Pluralist Methodology for Development Economics: The Example of Moral Economy of Indian Labour Markets," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-053, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Damien Murphy, 2008. "Eliminating Child Labour Through Education: The Potential for Replicating the Work of the MV Foundation in India," Working Papers id:1746, eSocialSciences.
    5. Mukherjee, Dipa, 2010. "Child workers in India: an overview of macro dimensions," MPRA Paper 35049, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2011.
    6. Dipa Mukherjee, 2012. "Schooling, Child Labor, and Reserve Army Evidences from India," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 28(1), pages 1-29, March.

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