Child labour and school attendance – Evidence from MICS and DHS surveys

Child labour is one of the obstacles on the way to the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education. This paper presents data on child labour and school attendance from 35 household surveys that cover one quarter of the world’s population. The data were collected with Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) between 1999 and 2005. Estimates for child labour and school attendance are described at the aggregate level for each country, as well as disaggregated by age, sex, place of residence and household wealth. A series of bivariate probit regressions identifies the determinants of child labour and school attendance at the household level. Children from poor households and from households without a formally educated household head are more likely to be engaged in child labour and less likely to attend school than members of rich households and children living with an educated household head. This finding lends strong support to the hypothesis that poverty is the root cause of child labour. The paper concludes with recommendations for targeted cash transfers as a means to increase school attendance and reduce child labour