“Factors Responsible For the Incidence of Child Labour: A Study in Cuttack City, Odisha”

Abstract

The prevalence of child labour is one of the most important socio-economic problems confronting the society . As estimated in the census figure, poverty and the incidence of child labour are very high in the state of Odisha. Therefore, to focus on the nature and magnitude of the problem and for finding out the main reason of their participation in the workforce at an early age, a micro level study has been made in Cuttack City. The objective of the study is to identity the factors responsible for the incidence of child labour in Cuttack city. In view of the objective, the study relied mostly on primary data. The relevant information is elicited from 100 child labourers of Cuttack City, Odisha with the help of a structured questionnaire. Besides getting information through the primary source, secondary data has also been collected from Labour & Employment Department of Odisha, NCLP Society, NSSO, Census of India, ILO, and UNICEF. The economic conditions of the child labourers are analysed in terms of their employment status including hours of working, wage rate, family income, child labour's contribution towards family income etc. through simple tables and figures. The hypothesis, i.e. the determinants of incidence of child labour has been identified and estimated with the help of a multiple regression model. Regarding factors responsible for the incidence of child labour, it has been found that poverty or low income is the major factor. 52 percent child labour indicated that poverty is the main cause of their work. There are also other reasons such as death of parents, big size of family, child's desire to work, etc. The study suggests that children's development and the overall eradication of child labour problem of Cuttack depend on active public private partnership, proper government policies and programmes for eliminating poverty and unemployment, free basic facilities, awareness among the people, active participation of the citizens and local bodies, education to extreme poor and particularly women's education.