Victims without a Voice: Measuring Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Indian State of Bihar

ABSTRACT

This study represents one of the most methodologically rigorous attempts at estimating the prevalence, in the Indian state of Bihar, of the worst forms of child labor, defined broadly as coerced labor detrimental physically or psychologically to the development of a child. Based on samples collected through a combination of spatial random sampling and link-tracing strategies, and applying population-based calibrations, we find that the worst the forms of child labor are widespread and pervasive among child workers in urban Bihar, irrespective of whether we apply the Indian legal framework or the international convention. Such pervasive exploitation and abuse of child labor in one Indian state suggest the need to develop solutions that must address the fundamental social forces that compel children to work in slave-like conditions, such as basic livable wages for adult laborers and greater enforcement of existing child protection laws to ensure proper scrutiny of places where children are employed. It will take a long-term commitment from the Indian government as well as the civil society to tackle such a large-scale social problem, and interventions aiming to bring about significant social changes, such as improved enforcement of existing child labor law, public education and awareness campaign, financial as well as legal punishment of egregious employers.

KEYWORDS:

• Human trafficking
• prevalence estimation
• child labor
• modern slavery
• labor trafficking
• link-tracing sampling

Acknowledgments

Funding for this study as provided by the Freedom Fund. Points of views of solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the funding agency. Direct all correspondence to [email protected].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Number of youth involved in each industry is in parentheses.

2. These children were rescued by the government from bangle factory (5); domestic work (4); hotel (3); sugarcane field (1), sweet shop (1).

3. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are official terms for historically disadvantaged people in India.

4. Converted using average exchange rate for period of Jan – Dec 2017.

5. Multiple statistical approaches have been employed to explore and test the predictive power as well as accuracy of various covariates, including the benchmark, frequentist approach (using weighted and unweighted data), Bayes approach (using weighted and unweighted data), and fixed/mixed/random effect models. A detailed statistical report on the procedures used to construct this “bubble chart” is available upon request.

6. Volz, E. and D. D. Heckathorn. 2008. “Probability-Based Estimation Theory for Respondent-Driven Sampling.” Journal of Official Statistics 24: 79-97.

7. Thompson, S. K. and M. Chow. 2003. “Estimation with Link Tracing Sampling Designs: A Bayesian Approach.” Survey Methodology 29: 197-205.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Freedom Fund [G00011367].