The negative impacts of child labour are seen in relation to children’s health, their access to education, and their long-term prospects for getting out of poverty and having a decent standard of living. This Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) examines current evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to combat child labour in four South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan).

Addressing the following research question, the aim of this study was to produce a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) to support evidence-informed programming on modern slavery, more specifically child labour:

What has been the effect of interventions to reduce the incidence and prevalence of the worst forms of child labour in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nepal?

Conclusions include:

• The evidence was limited in terms of geographic scope, types of child labour, types of interventions, and disaggregation of results by gender and age group; there was negligible disaggregation by disability. Studies were largely observational and therefore limited conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of interventions.
• These limitations make it very difficult to draw anything more than indicative conclusions from the REA findings – however  some lessons can be identified from the studies reviewed – including:
  • Interventions addressing the macroeconomic conditions that drive child labour have diverse effects on child labour
  • Rescue and reintegration interventions, and provision of direct support to affected/at-risk families, can be effective if properly resourced and implemented for a sufficient duration.
  • Evidence within the studies of the impact of legislative measures was very limited, but what little evidence there is suggests such approaches are ineffective
  • Interventions driven by Corporate Social Responsibility may be effective in tackling child labour, but do nothing to address wider labour exploitation, and can even make things worse.

This Rapid Evidence Assessment is part of a wider assignment from the Department for International Development to assess the available evidence on modern slavery interventions, including an evidence map:

• Download the static evidence map (Excel)
• Access the interactive evidence map
• Read the full accompanying report
• Read the HEART Rapid Evidence Assessment on human trafficking in South Asia

Trafficking in persons is a form of ‘modern slavery’, which is an umbrella term for the variety of situations in which someone is forcibly controlled by an individual or group for the purpose of exploitation. This Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) examines current evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to combat human trafficking in four South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan).

Addressing the following research question, the aim of this study was to produce a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) to support evidence-informed programming on modern slavery, more specifically human trafficking:

What has been the effect of interventions to combat and/or reduce sexual and labour exploitation in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Nepal?

Conclusions include:

• The evidence was limited in terms of geographic scope, types of trafficking, types of interventions, and disaggregation of results by gender and age group; there was negligible disaggregation by disability. Studies were largely observational and therefore limited conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of interventions.
• These limitations make it very difficult to draw anything more than indicative conclusions from the REA findings – however  some lessons can be identified from the studies reviewed – including:
  • Community-based groups are effective at improving the identification and referral of trafficking situations and at addressing the risk factors of trafficking
  • Training for law enforcement, government agencies, and NGOs have resulted in participants identifying and referring victims, registering cases, and closing down places of exploitation
  • Interventions led by sex workers in the form of Self-Regulatory Boards (SRBs) resulted in increased identification of victims of trafficking when sex workers were involved in the screening of new brothel workers and when partnerships were created with law enforcement and NGOs

This Rapid Evidence Assessment is part of a wider assignment from the Department for International Development to assess the available evidence on modern slavery interventions, including an evidence map:

• Download the static evidence map (Excel)
• Access the interactive evidence map
• Read the full accompanying report
• Read the HEART Rapid Evidence Assessment on child labour in South Asia

To download the static map (Excel), please click here.

To access the interactive map, please click here.

The Asia Pacific region has the highest numbers of both slavery and child labour victims in the world. Although there is a growing body of research and evaluations on specific sub-sectors and interest in the worst forms of labour exploitation, there has not yet been a systematic scoping or synthesis of studies that would help policymakers understand ‘what works’ to reduce the prevalence of modern slavery in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

While systematic reviews on interventions to reduce prevalence of trafficking, forced or bonded labour or slavery exist, these have not focused on South Asia. In this map and report, the authors have scoped the range of modern slavery interventions and outcomes for specific target populations (survivors, employers, landlords, service providers, criminal justice officials) and at different levels (individual, community, state).

Addressing the following research questions, the aim of this study was to produce an evidence map to support evidence-informed programming on modern slavery:

1. What interventions exist to prevent, mitigate or respond to modern slavery?
2. Where are interventions clustered, and where are they missing?
3. Which populations are interventions mostly targeted at (modern slavery survivors, employers, landlords, service providers, criminal justice practitioners)?

The evidence map provides a visual overview of the availability of evidence for modern slavery interventions. The evidence map highlights gaps and clusters of evidence by mapping out existing and ongoing impact evaluations in modern slavery, and by providing a graphical display based on specific types of evidence and approaches to research.

Useful for academics, practitioners and for informing evidence-based policy-making, the authors suggest that readers use the evidence in this map together with other sources and forms of evidence and knowledge that are available.

It is difficult to make estimates on the number of children working in mines due to a lack of clear data on the topic and the lack of uniformed definitions on what constitutes child labour. Moreover, ASM is by definition informal and often illegal, thus practitioners operate in secret making research difficult. However, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there are more than one million children working in ASM, with the number increasing with the deagrarianisation of large areas in Africa and Asia.

The data on supply chains in ASM is limited and it is difficult to credibly assess when minerals involving child labour make it into Europe. Due to the informal and often illegal nature of ASM they have a longer, more complicated, supply chain where responsibility and traceability is lost along the way. However, there are a range of organisations – such as Fairtrade, Fairmined, OECD, and the Responsible Jewellery Council – that offer certification that guarantees that the entire supply chain is audited and free of elements such as child labour.

The three principal international conventions on child labour (Minimum Age to Employment Convention, 1973 (No. 138), Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, together set the legal parameters for child labour and provide the legal foundations for national and international action against it. Whilst advocacy efforts are the predominant type of intervention, it is difficult to attribute the successes in ratifying conventions and implementing legislative policies and powers to any one organisation or campaign. Notwithstanding, the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
continues to lead in this area due to their global presence, funding and partnerships internationally, regionally and nationally. A number of other actors including a number of regional level strategic policy and technical alliances also engage in programmatic support and technical assistance addressing child labour. Impact evaluations on child labour programmes tend to suffer from two main limitations:

1. Seldom is child labour the main outcome of interest of impact evaluations and;
2. Social protection programmes and their constituent interventions are not necessarily selected according to a consistent knowledge generating strategy.

Despite these challenges, integrated approaches such as conditional cash transfers combined with supply side interventions such as the provision of education and healthcare services have demonstrated the most success according to the studies examined for this report. Effective and well-targeted responses to child labour demand a strong body of knowledge on the issue, including an understanding of the number of child labourers, which employment sectors and geographical areas they work in, the demographic characteristics of the children involved, and the type of work that they carry out.

Despite recent national household surveys in most South Asian countries (with Afghanistan as an important exception), data quality and comparability are uneven and significant information gaps remain, affecting the true understanding of the dynamics of child labour and the ability of policy-makers to address it. There is a general need therefore, for mainstream systems for the collection, analysis and dissemination of child labour statistics, as
well as more targeted research aimed at filling specific knowledge gaps. This report will begin with an overview of advocacy efforts and service provision at the international, regional and national levels followed by programmatic and technical assistance interventions also sub-categorised in a similar manner. Lastly the report will conclude with a discussion regarding impact evaluations, key findings and its challenges.

Child labour is an issue of immense concern in South Asia with conservative estimates suggesting that (excluding Afghanistan) there are 17 million children in child labour and 50 million children out of school. Although India and Bangladesh have the most children in child labour, Nepal has the highest percentage of children in child labour in South Asia. There are also significant levels of children undertaking hazardous forms of labour in South Asia.

This Help Desk Report aims to map out research on child labour in South Asia, specifically: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, as well as Myanmar (Burma). The report focuses on major projects being carried out by international organisations with an examination of their expenditure on research, as well as local partners. The report also highlights the research being carried out by local organisations and what their areas of focus and capacity are. Finally the report examines the key academics working on child labour and what their main focus is. The aim of the report is to create an understanding of who is conducting and funding research in South Asia and what their main focus is in order to highlight potential partners for future research projects.

Globally, children are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work that are considered not harmful to them. They are classified as child labourers when they are either too young to work or are involved in hazardous activities that may compromise their physical, mental, social or educational development. According to the International Labour Organisation (IPEC, 2013: 7) the term “child labour” is a subset of “children in employment”, it includes all children in employment 5-11 years of age; excludes those in the 12-14 year age group engaged in “permissible light work”; and, from among the 15-17-year-olds, includes only those in hazardous work or other worst forms of child labour.

The issue of child labour is guided by three international conventions: the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 1382 concerning minimum age for admission to employment and Recommendation No. 146 (1973)3; ILO Convention No. 1824 concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour and Recommendation No.
190 (1999)5; and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child6. These conventions frame the concept of child labour and form the basis for child labour legislation enacted by countries that are signatories.