Child Labour and Child Schooling in South Asia: A Cross Country Study of their Determinants

This study uses Nepalese data to estimate the impact of individual, household and
cluster/community level variables on child labour and child schooling. The principal
estimates are, then, compared with those from Bangladesh and Pakistan. The exercise is
designed to identify effective policy instruments that could influence child labour and
child schooling in South Asia. The results show that the impact of a variable on a
child’s education/employment is, often, highly sensitive to the specification in the
estimation and to the country considered. There are, however some results that are fairly
robust. For example, in both Nepal and Pakistan, inequality has a strong U shaped
impact on both child labour participation rates and child labour hours, thus, pointing to
high inequality as a significant cause of child labour. In contrast, household poverty has
only a weak link with child labour, though it seems to be more important in the context
of child schooling. The current school attendance by a child has a large, negative impact
on her labour hours, thus, pointing to compulsory schooling as an effective instrument
in reducing child labour. Other potentially useful instruments include adult education
levels, improvements in the schooling infrastructure, and the provision of amenities
such as water and electricity in the villages.