Determinants of Child Labor in Afghanistan

Abstract

Child labor is a global issue and around 152 million children between the ages of 5-17 are child laborers in the globe. After the Africa region, Asian and Pacific region which includes Afghanistan is the second major region with highest number of child laborers. Thus, this study identifies the main determinants that influence child labor in Afghanistan. For the purpose of this study household and child characteristics are included in the model and the effects of the determinants are examined through logistic and probit regression methods. In order to better understand the effect of the determinants on child labor in Afghanistan, domestic work and market work are studied separately in the form of 4 different types of work. As well as, the target group which is children between the ages of 5 to 14 is divided to 2 sub-groups of younger children and older children. The main findings of this paper is that poverty is not a strong influential factor on all types of work such that, indoor and domestic works are strongly influenced by poverty level of households while, market-oriented works are very weakly influenced by poverty status and there are other social and cultural factors effecting market-oriented works. Further, older male and female children living in rural areas are the most vulnerable children in terms of laboring. And generally outdoor works are dominated by male children while indoor works are dominated by female children. Overall, except age of children, other child and household characteristics indicate different influence on the probability that child will work based on the type of work and age category of the children.