• Working children and gender

Working children and gender

This document argues that the participation of girls in child labour is underestimated by not taking into account household tasks. The lack of visibility of the intensity and hazardousness of this type of work keeps an important group of girls out of the scope of policies oriented towards reducing child labour.

The author notes that traditional policy recommendations to reduce child labour are often income transfers and mandatory school attendance. The author argues that a better understanding of the nature of child domestic work might highlight the need for policies focused on improving the provision of public services. Providing these services may be more effective in reducing child labour. Moreover, having statistics that show the type of work that children perform (economic vs. non-economic) will help understand at what age the sexual division of labour starts and how this, in the future, will affect the participation of women in economic and non-economic work.

The author outlines some policy recommendations:

• in addition to sex-disaggregated information on child labour, it is fundamental to acknowledge that boys and girls do not carry out the same duties within and outside the household. Child labour surveys that include domestic activities should therefore be conducted periodically
• child labour surveys must place the same emphasis on the non-economic and economic activities children perform
• after the data is collected, it is important to apply it to built indicators that reflect the participation of boys and girls in economic and non-economic activities, as well as the total workload they have to endure

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