An Empirical Analysis of the Child Labor in the Carpet Industry of Kashmir: Some Major Findings

Abstract

In the present paper an attempt has been made to study various facts of child labor. Children have been defined here as those in the age group of 6-14 years, working in their family owned or non-family carpet weaving units. The major focus was (I ) to find socio-educational life pattern of child labor, (ii) to locate factors compelling them to join labor force, (iii) to identify their socio-economic and family background, (iv) to delineate various positive and negative aspects of their working conditions,(v) to find the level of earnings of child and its  impact on household income, (vi) to highlight the effects of abolition of child labor on the household, (vii) to identify the role of employers in eliminating child labor, and (viii) to know the opinion of parents and employers on child labor.

Multi- stage sampling was used to select child labors from 100 households engaged in carpet units of five village of Quimoh development block of Kulgam district, which was the universe of the present study. In its effort to collect more authentic data, the study has included parents (82) of the child workers and their employers (50) as well. The tools used for data collection were interview schedules besides observations, block development offices etc. The major findings and conclusions that emerge from the analysis and discussion are briefly summarized in the present paper. Apart from these, certain important recommendations are made to ameliorate the condition of child workers in contemporary society and also to prevent the entry of children in carpet weaving in future society.