Project report
Neighbourhoods of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: Centring Children’s Experiences and Perceptions
Mariah Cannon, Kriti Bhattarai, Surojit Kundu, Mushtari Muhsina, Durlav Rayamajhi et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This research paper examines how neighbourhood dynamics and spatial relationships contribute to worst forms of child labour, based on five years of evidence from the CLARISSA programme in South and South-Eastern Asia. Most previous studies have focused on economic and cultural determinants of child labour, but this work centres children's own experiences and perceptions of their neighbourhoods. The paper argues that understanding worst forms of child labour requires examining the neighbourhood contexts in which they occur. It brings together findings to show how neighbourhood characteristics create conditions for child labour to persist.
Key points
- Neighbourhood dynamics and spatial relationships play a significant role in perpetuating worst forms of child labour
- Children's perspectives and experiences of their neighbourhoods have been largely absent from existing child labour literature
- Most existing research focuses on economic and cultural determinants rather than neighbourhood-level factors
- Understanding worst forms of child labour requires engagement with the specific neighbourhood contexts where they exist
- The CLARISSA programme collected five years of evidence on this topic across South and South-Eastern Asian countries
Limitations
The document is a metadata/abstract only and does not provide specific findings, data, or details about which neighbourhood characteristics contribute to child labour. It cannot tell us what interventions were tested or what the actual outcomes were.
Abstract
This research and evidence paper fills a critical gap in understanding how spatial and relationship neighbourhood dynamics contribute to and perpetuate worst forms of child labour from children’s perspectives. Most existing literature related to children’s work focuses on the determinants of child labour and the prevalence of child labour in relation to economic factors and cultural factors. Until recently, there has been little exploration of the role that neighbourhood dynamics play in child labour. This paper, based on evidence collected during five years of the CLARISSA programme (Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia), focuses on how child labourers experience their neighbourhoods and how the characteristics of their neighbourhoods create worst forms of child labour. It brings together findings across the programme and proposes that understanding the worst forms of child labour requires engaging with the neighbourhood dynamics in which they exist.