Why do children work?

Why do children work?


At the micro level poverty within the family as the major factor behind the prevalence of child labour remains the most accepted theory. It is viewed that every where parents prefer to send their children to school but it is lack of resources that induces the impoverished households to push their children into child labour to meet their basic needs for their survival. It is the world’s poorest nations that mostly account for the child labour population when compared to the richer and affluent countries with relatively higher per capita income and GDP. On the domestic front in India, child labour is more concentrated in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, M.P, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Although, these more
backward and the poverty stricken states account for a large percentage of child labour, this may not always hold true since there are instances of growing child labour in better off states like Punjab and Haryana.

But, at the same time, poverty as the sole reason does not always have a direct
bearing and it fails to convince the prevalence of the child labour situation in
several parts of the country. The phenomenon spells out new dimensions in the wake of the new economic order, market forces and the globalization. It also holds true that the parents want their children to work. This view implies that parents take advantage of any earning opportunities open to their children. It is therefore appropriately believed that so long as the parents benefit more when the child goes to work than when the child goes to school, the problem of child labour will persist.
It also most commonly observed that incidence of child labour is higher wherever the access to primary education is low. Child labour has a lot to do with the primary education system and the provisions thereof.


In India, in spite of the Constitutional guarantee under the Directive Principles recognizing free and compulsory education of children in the age group of 6-14 years and now the same as a fundamental right, nearly 80-100 million children are reportedly out of school. Some of the prime reasons, probably not unknown that account for out of school children are: distance of school from home, poor school
infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, schools without proper drinking water facilities and sanitation (15.5% of primary schools had urinals, NCERT, NAYAR 1993), absenteeism of teachers, unappealing curriculum etc.