Child labour: A Multi-disciplinary review

The aim of this article is twofold: firstly, I will examine the value of children's participation in working life in the South1 and particularly in Nepal. My second objective is to assess the theoretical possibilities of the psychosocial health screening tool used to answer the questions raised in the recent literature on child labour. Child labour is a social problem arising out of family poverty and the fact that children form a cheap, usually obedient, labour force not recognized by trade unions. I will examine the sociological, psychological, and institutional research contexts in relation to a study of children working in the carpet industry in Nepal, which was carried out by the author in collaboration with Professor Murari P. Regmi from Tribhuvan University. As child labour is a social and to some degree also cultural problem, the investigation will be conducted from a sociological and a social anthropological viewpoint. The "cultural problem" presumably arises from the different values assigned to children's participation in working life and from the conceptualizations of childhood prevalent in different cultures. There is thus a need to analyze the basic question of what kind of work is actually a hindrance to the development of the human potential of every child. This paper will not, however, discuss issues related to the elimination of poverty, as this is a topic more closely related to the field of political economy.