Peer-reviewed article
Causes of child labour in rural Punjab
Baljeet Kaur, Shalini Sharma, Gaganpreet Kaur ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined the causes of child labour in rural Punjab by surveying 120 respondents from farm and non-farm households. Economic need, parental unemployment and alcoholism, family debt, migration, and large family size were found to be the main drivers of child labour. The research recommends that governments provide vocational training to parents and promote school attendance among children.
Key points
- Economic needs and parental factors (drunken father) were the dominant causes of child labour
- Irregular family income and family debt forced children into early work
- Migration was more common among farm respondents and contributed to child labour
- Large family size was a contributing factor to increased child labour
- Study recommends vocational training for parents and educational encouragement for children
Limitations
The study presents descriptive findings from a cross-sectional survey of 120 respondents but does not provide detailed quantitative analysis or statistical comparisons between farm and non-farm groups. The document does not specify the age range of children studied or provide outcome data on interventions.
Abstract
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through work that deprives them of their childhood, education and basic rights. It is a global issue, often driven by poverty, lack of access to education, and economic inequality. The study was conducted using primary data collected from 120 respondents (60 farm and 60 off farm) to analyse factors responsible for the child labour. The findings showed that personal factors i.e. economic needs and drunken father were the dominating factors responsible for child labour. Irregular income of the family and family debt forced the children to earn at earlier age. Besides these, migration, which is more common among farm respondents and large family size were contributing factor for increasing child labour. Thus, the study suggested that government should provide avenues of vocational training to provide better employment opportunities to unemployed parents and encourage them to send their wards to school for education.