Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

S. Marulu Reddy ¹, E. Abbulu ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Economics, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, IN

Abstract

India has been undergoing the problem of child labor since its birth like other developing countries is deep ischolar_mained with poverty. Present research concentrates to analyze the extent of child labour participation in different sectors along with investigating the main causes of child labour. According to Census of India - 2001, there were 12.26 million working children in the age group of 5-14 years as compared to 11.3 million in 1991 revealing an increasing trend in absolute numbers though the work participation rates of children (5-14) has come down from 5.4 percent during 1991 to 5 percent during 2001. The recent round of the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) estimates suggest that the child labour in the country is around 8.9 million in 2004-05 with a workforce participation rate of 3.4 per cent (NSSO 2004-05). Data used in this research was obtained from the children aged 5- 15 years in Visakhapatnam City of Andhra Pradesh who were working at Construction, Departmental Stores, Hotels and Mechanical workshops. Interview Schedule was designed to measure the demographic characteristics in different sectors of the child labour. A convenience sample is obtained by selecting 'convenient' population units. Chi-square test was applied to measure the extent and direction of relationship between the study variables. From the analysis, it was concluded that gender of child, level of education, religion, caste of the family and migration are the main reasons of child labour and age of the children has no relationship. In this respect both government and non-government organizations should take some concrete steps for provision of education for children, and equitable employment opportunities should be adopted to control the menace of child labour.

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