Socio-Economic Analysis of Child Labor in the Carpet Industry of Kashmir: A Micro Study

Abstract

In the present paper an attempt has been made to study socio economic characteristics of working children in the Carpet Industry of Kashmir. It includes their social profile, age, education, nature of employment, family type, economic status, child's contribution to family income etc. Based on the primary data the study reveals most of the child labors were in the age group of 11 -14 years and among them female child labor outnumber male child labor. Economic compulsion and educational backwardness of parents were the main reasons forcing children to leave the school and join labor market at different point of time. Our analysis shows that there is negative correlation between percentage contribution of child labor to family income and total household income. In other words as family income increases, the proportion of child's contribution to family income decreases and vice- versa.

Keywords: Child labour, sex, education, employment, family, dropout, carpet industry.