Child Labour In The Informal Sector The Case Of Gulele Sub City Addis Ababa

This study aims at assessing child labour in the informal sector of Gulele Sub-city, Addis Ababarnwith particular reference to Shiro Meda and Addisu Gebaya. The study looks at the factors thatrncontribute for the involvement of children in the labour market; the living and workingrnconditions of child labourers; the negative and positive impacts of child labour on the workingrnchildren; the perceptions of child labour from the perspectives of working children, employersrnand members of the society; the challenges and abusive practices child labourers face; and thernlegislations that protect children from labour exploitation. To undertake this study I employedrnqualitative research method, which is the dominant research methodology of the field of socialrnanthropology, as the sole technique of data collection. I gathered information pertinent to thernstudy through structured and unstructured interviews, observation, case study and focus grouprndiscussion. Theories of child labour such as the ‘labour market’, the ‘human capital’, the ‘socialrnresponsibility’ and the ‘children-centered’ were reviewed and used in order to shed light on thernissue of child labour in the informal sector. All these theories were useful for this study.rnChild labour in general and in the informal sector in particular is not exhaustively studied in therncountry. But this dearth of data seems serious in the informal sector of the city of Addis Ababa,rnespecially in the study areas. There are limited anthropological studies on child labour.rnNonetheless, they did not address the informal sector all in all. They focused only on a certainrnarea of child labour in the informal sector.rnFindings from this study show that poverty, migration, child trafficking, parentalrnunemployment, the newly introduced education system (i.e., full-day schooling), and HIV/AIDSrnand family breakdown or displacement are the major causes of child labour in the study areas. Itrnalso shows the positive and negative impacts of child labour on the working children includingrnthe interface between child labour and education. Positively, work enables children to meet theirrnbasic needs, develop self-confidence, high self-esteem, a sense of self-reliance andrnresponsibility, and good social interaction. It also puts negative impact on the holisticrnpersonality development of the child. It has physical, health and psychosocial impacts on thernworking children. Child labour and education are inversely related. Child labour affects thernschool enrollment and participation of children. High participation of children in school reducesrnthe number of working children.rnDifferent people may have different perceptions towards child labour. Children may see childrnlabour from different angle than employers and members of the society. Some children viewrn‘work’ as useful for their survival. Some others perceive it as something detrimental to theirrnholistic development. Employers have different views and stressed that they employ children tornhelp them meet their basic needs. Members of the society perceive ‘child labour’ somethingrn‘useful’ and ‘harmful’, and hold moderate attitude. The other most important finding of thisrnstudy is the challenges child labourers face when they try to run away from labour exploitation.rnSome of these are poverty, language barrier, inability to afford transportation cost, violentrnemployers, phobia created by employers, etc. They also encounter physical, verbal andrnpsychological abuses from employers, ‘parents’ or ‘relatives’, colleagues, security officials,rnhooligans and customers.rnMoreover, child labour legislations and their enforcements in the context of the study areas arernassessed in this study. It highlights that Ethiopia has adequate legislations that protect childrenrnfrom abuses such as labour exploitation. But the main problem here is the ill enforcement ofrnthese legislations enshrined in different legal documents of the country. Therefore, there is greatrngap between the laws of the country and their enforcements. In short, this study ignites greenrnlight for further studies, and provide fertile ground for possible intervention policy makers on the problem of children in general and child labour in particular in the study areas and the country at large

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