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Technology and the Future of Bonded Child Labour in South Asia
Francis Kuriakose, Deepa Kylasam Iyer ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This article examines bonded child labour systems in South Asia, where debt bondage often passes between generations despite legal prohibitions. The authors explore how technology could strengthen enforcement of anti-child labour policies. They propose that automation, physical mapping, and supply chain tracing could help reduce child labour prevalence in the region.
Key points
- Bonded child labour in South Asia is linked to debt bondage and intergenerational labour patterns
- Poor implementation of national and international legal frameworks has allowed child labour to persist
- Technology applications including automation, physical mapping and supply chain tracing are proposed as potential solutions
- The article anticipates how technology could support anti-child labour policy implementation
Limitations
The document is a conceptual analysis that proposes how technology could help reduce child labour, but does not evaluate any specific technological intervention or provide empirical evidence of effectiveness. It does not assess actual implementation outcomes or provide data on impact.
Abstract
Child labour has persisted through many decades despite national and international legal frameworks of prohibition world over. In South Asia, this issue has been specially compounded by concerns of poor implementation and the linkage of debt bondage and intergenerational labor. This article examines the traditional systems of bonded child labour prevalent in South Asia and anticipates the manner in which technological applications could aid in anti-child labour policy implementation. The authors suggest that automation, physical mapping and supply chain tracing that technology brings in, has the potential to reduce prevalence of child labour in South Asia.