IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jstats/v7y2024i4p84-1453d1532502.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Child Labor in Sindh, Pakistan: Patterns and Areas in Need of Intervention

Author

Listed:
  • Nadia Maqbool

    (Department of Educational Administration, College of Education, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 0X1, Canada)

  • Paul Newton

    (Department of Educational Administration, College of Education, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 0X1, Canada)

  • Tayyab Shah

    (CHASR, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SKS7N 5A4, Canada)

Abstract

Child labor remains a predominant issue in Pakistan despite the country’s existing policies and frameworks aimed at abolishing it. Through this study, we investigated the child labor distribution across Sindh and examined the factors that shape the regional patterns. We analyzed the data available through the 2018–19 Sindh Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, MICS 6, from 20,030 households with 40,633 children in the 5–17 age bracket. By applying prevalence statistics, chi-square tests, and regression modeling to these data, we investigated the trends in child labor prevalence, identified the correlation between child labor and various socioeconomic and geodemographic variables, and finally mapped the geospatial patterns of child labor across districts in Sindh, enabling us to identify and prioritize the districts in need of immediate intervention. The findings revealed that about 20 percent of the children in Sindh are engaged in child labor, with a high prevalence among males and in the 15–17 age bracket. Moreover, poverty and rural dwellings raise this issue. Other socioeconomic and geographic factors reinforcing this issue are a lack of education among children, mothers, or caretakers and mothers’ or caretakers’ functional difficulties. However, children’s functional difficulties lower their prevalence in labor. Among the 29 districts across Sindh, Kambar Shahdadkot has the highest prevalence of child labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Nadia Maqbool & Paul Newton & Tayyab Shah, 2024. "Child Labor in Sindh, Pakistan: Patterns and Areas in Need of Intervention," Stats, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jstats:v:7:y:2024:i:4:p:84-1453:d:1532502
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-905X/7/4/84/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-905X/7/4/84/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Noman Saeed & Ambreen Fatima, 2015. "Educational Inequality in Rural and Urban Sindh," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 767-777.
    2. Das, Krishna Surjya, 2022. "Child labour and its determinants in India," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    3. Raymond Boadi Frempong & David Stadelmann, 2019. "The Effect of Food Price Changes on Child Labour: Evidence from Uganda," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(7), pages 1492-1507, July.
    4. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Iqbal, Nasir & Nawaz, Saima & Yew, Siew Ling, 2021. "Unconditional cash transfers, child labour and education: theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 437-457.
    5. Olivier Thévenon & Eric Edmonds, 2019. "Child labour: Causes, consequences and policies to tackle it," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 235, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Opoku Adabor, 2025. "Empirical analysis of child labour, household poverty, and child health in Ghana," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 29-60, January.
    2. Shahla Akram & Mehboob Ul Hassan & Muhammad Farrukh Shahzad, 2024. "Factors Fuelling the Persistence of Child Labour: Evidence from Pakistan," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 17(4), pages 1771-1790, August.
    3. Nasir Iqbal, 2021. "Using Cash Transfer Programs to Get Children Back to School from Work," PIDE Policy View Point 2021:23, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    4. Raymond Boadi Frempong, 2023. "Do subsidies on seed and fertilizer lead to child labour? Evidence from Malawi," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(2), March.
    5. Delphine BOUTIN & Marine JOUVIN, 2022. "Child Labour Consequences on Education and Health: A Review of Evidence and Knowledge Gaps," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2022-14, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    6. Patrick Muchiri Kamau & Norbert O. Ogeta & Malach M. Mogaka, 2024. "The Degree to Which Parents’ Association Costs Predict Secondary School Students’ Gross Attendance Ratio in Laikipia County, Kenya," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(7), pages 588-596, July.
    7. Dadon-Golan, Zehorit & BenDavid-Hadar, Iris & Klein, Joseph, 2019. "Revisiting educational (in)equity: Measuring educational Gini coefficients for Israeli high schools during the years 2001–2011," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Raymond Frempong & David Stadelmann & Frederik Wild, 2020. "Coronavirus-Lockdowns, Secondary Effects and Sustainable Exit-Strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(3), pages 2586-2593.
    9. Figueiredo, Erik & Lima, Luiz Renato, 2022. "Unintended consequences of trade integration on child labor," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 523-541.
    10. Wei Lu & Yuechen Li & Rongkun Zhao & Bo He & Zihua Qian, 2022. "Spatial Pattern and Fairness Measurement of Educational Resources in Primary and Middle Schools: A Case Study of Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-23, August.
    11. Chong, Zhi Zheng & Lau, Siew Yee, 2023. "A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Educational Effects of Unconditional Cash Transfers," MPRA Paper 113587, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Ajefu, Joseph B. & Massacky, Falecia, 2023. "Mobile money, child labour and school enrolment," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    13. Nawaz, Saima, 2021. "Energy poverty, climate shocks, and health deprivations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    14. Nasir Iqbal & Saima Nawaz & Muhammad Aqeel Anwar, 2022. "The Socio-economic Analysis of the Street Economy in the Twin Cities of Pakistan (Article)," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 335-363.
    15. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Iqbal, Nasir & Nawaz, Saima & Yew, Siew Ling, 2024. "Unconditional cash transfers, health and savings," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    16. Raymond Boadi Frempong & David Stadelmann, 2021. "Risk preference and child labor: Econometric evidence," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 878-894, May.
    17. Sriroop Chaudhuri & Mimi Roy & Louis M. McDonald & Yves Emendack, 2021. "Coping Behaviours and the concept of Time Poverty: a review of perceived social and health outcomes of food insecurity on women and children," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 1049-1068, August.
    18. Nadeem Ul Haque & Faheem Jehangir Khan (ed.), 2022. "RASTA Local Research, Local Solutions: Markets & Regulations, Volume V," PIDE Books, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, number 2022:7.
    19. Meroe Vameghi & Payam Roshanfekr & Gholamreza Ghaedamini Harouni & Marzieh Takaffoli & Giti Bahrami, 2023. "Street Children in Iran: What Are Their Living and Working Conditions? Findings from a Survey in Six Major Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-14, March.
    20. Altaf Hussain & Susanne Schech, 2021. "Cash Transfer Programmes in Pakistan through a Child Well-Being Lens," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-14, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jstats:v:7:y:2024:i:4:p:84-1453:d:1532502. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.