A study on Child labor and its impact in Adama City in the case of Keble 08 and 18

Abstract

Child labor is a widespread and growing phenomenon in today’s world, especially in developing countries. Alike other developing countries, child labor are a pervasive problem in Ethiopia. Agriculture is by far the dominant sector of child employment in rural areas where child laborers are mostly engaged in the informal sector in urban areas. Though there are different types of child labor in the informal sector, this study focused on children that are engaged in different informal activities. The objective of the study was to examine cause and impact of child labor on children who are engaged in different informal activities in Adamacity particularly in kebele 08 and 18. The study is descriptive in its nature and it employed a child-centered research. The study employed purposive sampling method by using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. A total of 54 samples were taken for the study .The quantitative data were collected from 40 children who were engaged in different informal activities. Part of children were also asked an in-depth interview for qualitative one also for qualitative purpose data were collected from 8 children by using focus group discussion conducted with the working children and observation 2 children by case study and 4 children employer by in-depth interview The findings of the study revealed that the children were pushed to work by various socio-economic factors. The core causes of child labor identified in the study were poverty, divorce, death of parents and rural-urban migration. The study also revealed that the children were leading adult lives. They were working for long hours under conditions damaging to their health and physical well-being. They were also deprived from meaningful educational opportunities that could open up for them better future and they have no regular resting time that can cause to have poor social life in their future life.