Is child labour a substitute for adult labour?

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to highlight that child labour is complementary to adult labour in the brick kiln industry.Design methodology approach - The paper presents a case study of bonded labourers in the brick kiln industry of Southeast India.Findings - The paper finds that child labo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of social economics Vol. 33; no. 8; pp. 594 - 600
Main Authors Bhukuth, Augendra, Ballet, Jérôme
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.08.2006
Subjects
Labour
Poverty
Children (age groups)
India
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Summary:Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to highlight that child labour is complementary to adult labour in the brick kiln industry.Design methodology approach - The paper presents a case study of bonded labourers in the brick kiln industry of Southeast India.Findings - The paper finds that child labour is used by parents in the moulding process in order to avoid falling into debt bondage. In this industry, brick making is organized as a home-based enterprise. Thus, child labour increases the family productivity and consequently its income. In case of a ban on child labour bonded parents will be worse-off. NGOs can play an essential role by preventing families from falling into bondage and by improving their living standards.Originality value - The results may help the NGOs address child labour issues in the developing world.
ISSN:0306-8293
1758-6712
DOI:10.1108/03068290610678734