Determinants of the child labour in Uganda

Abstract

Analysis of the causes and characteristics of child labour in Uganda is very important because of the increasing number of children engaged in work, yet she is still a developing country with children making up more than half of the total population. The national labour force and child activities survey 2011/12 estimated a total of 2,009,000 children engaged in some form of child labour which constituted of 16 percent of all the children nationally. The researcher used secondary data from the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) 2012-2013 and measured child labour basing on the National legislation and International conventions. A probit model was used to estimate the determinants of child labour for the individual child worker. The results of the study indicated that child characteristics, such as age, child status as the son or daughter of the head of household, schooling status and whether a child is an orphan, appear to be significant determinants of child labour in Uganda. They show that being an orphan and increase in a child‘s age has a significant positive effect on the probability that a child will work. This indicates that orphans and older children have a higher probability of being engaged in work than children who are not orphans or younger in age, this can be attributed to the fact that orphans are vulnerable children who usually don’t have an opportunity to attend school and usually lack basic needs hence highly exposed to work and older children tend to work to help supplement the incomes of their families and also employers are looking for an energetic but easily manageable workforce. The results also show that children who attended school in the past and those that have never attended school are likely to be engaged in work than those currently in school. The status of a child as the son or daughter of the head of household has a significant negative effect on the probability that a child will work, a child who is the son or daughter of the head of household is less likely to work which can be attributed to the fact that parents tend to have direct responsibility over their biological children which involves planning for them effectively to ensure that they have a living, children also tend to thrive best when raised by their biological parents who ensure that they have a better chance of participating fully in school hence no need to engage in work at an early age.