---

To Ban or not to Ban the Child Labor: An Investigation from Urban Slums in Bangladesh

Corresponding Author : Syed Hasanuzzaman (shzaman-eco@sust.edu)

Authors : Syed Hasanuzzaman (shzaman-eco@sust.edu)

Keywords : Child Labor, Multinomial Logit, Household Vulnerability

Abstract :

Too much emphasis on household income might have blurred the role of market incentives and household vulnerability in determining child labor that can provide important implications to the debate over child labor ban. Child labor ban may not be costless, especially, for households suffering extreme poverty. Again, motivations for market returns to child labor cannot be ignored. For the urban slum areas of Sylhet district our study reveals that household demand for child labor is not only generated by poverty and motivation for child income but also by household vulnerability. Parental educational attainment and mother’s employment status also play important role behind child schooling. Thus, poverty is not the sole cause as to why households are becoming desperate to send their children to unpaid works, but non-income variables may possess great importance in determining proper policies and in examining the efficiency of child labor ban.

Published on December 30th, 2021 in Vol 32, No 2, 2021 (Special Issue on Bangladesh Development Perspectives : Issues of Economic Justic, Social Sciences