Prevalence and correlates of child labour in five low-income countries: a descriptive study based on UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys 6 (MICS6).

Abstract

Background: The Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children need to be protected from 'any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development'. We aimed to determine the prevalence and correlates of child labour in five low-income African countries using the sixth wave of UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS6).

Methods: Data on child labour, reported by the household respondent for a randomly selected child (5-17 years), were extracted from MICS6 reports from Chad, Guinea Bissau, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Togo. Prevalence rates were extracted from three categories of child labour (household chores, economic activity and hazardous work) stratified by gender, age, wealth and residence.

Results: 140 598 children aged 5-17 years (61.2% 5-11; 22.0% 12-14; 16.8% 15-17) were included in the reports; 59 090 (42%) were engaged in child labour. The highest proportion of child labourers by age was 12-14 years old (61.1%) followed by 15-17 years old (51.1%) and 5-11 years old (36.1%). There were differences between countries, with Chad having the highest proportion of working children. Gender differences in working were limited (43.9% boys vs 40.3% girls); rural children were almost twice as likely to be working compared with urban children (47.5% rural vs 25.6% urban) as were children in the poorest quintile compared with those in the wealthiest quintile (46.9% vs 23.7%). Over a third (35.3%) of working children were exposed to hazardous conditions. Older, male, rural or poor children were over-represented among those in hazardous work.

Conclusions: Almost half of all children in these five sub-Saharan African countries are engaged in labour, of which one-third are in hazardous work. MICS6 surveys do not report on working children's health; however, working puts their health and development at risk.