Yadeta, Lomi (2002) Child Labor in the Informal Sector in Northern Addis Ababa: The Case of Weavers around ‘Shero Meda’ Area. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.
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Abstract
In Urban areas child workers are mostly engaged in the informal sector. The informal sector is unregistered and unregulated and cannot easily be detected by the public. Thus, it has become an ideal place for children to be engaged in hazardous work, hidden form the public. There are different types of child labor even in the informal sectors, but the study covers only those children who are engaged in the traditional cloth production in home based enterprises around ‘Shero meda’ area. The general objective of the study is to inquire in to the determinants and effects of child labor in terms of its impacts on the development of children engaged in child labor in the northern part of Addis Ababa. The study is a child-focused research that used a combination of primary and secondary data in a complementary way. The secondary data is collected from published and unpublished resources at national and internationals sources. The primary data based its information on the survey conducted by the researcher using structured questionnaire that is addressed to the child and the home-based enterprise operators. Since the issue is the child’s the unit of analysis is the working child and the home-based enterprise is used as a sampling unit. The working child and the home-based enterprise operator are used as a source of information for the survey. And focus group discussion and key informant method is applied to validate and supplement the information gathered using the survey. The study found out that most of the working children are migrants from Gamo-Gofa area, who came to Addis Ababa with the hope of having a better future and education. In the study area, the children start work at early age. One third of the children started work with in the age group of 5-9 and more than half of the children started work when they were with in the age group of 10-14. Three fourth of them are working for six days in a week and the majority of them work at least thirteen hours per day and to the minimum 78 hours per a week. Even for civil servants the regular working hours to the maximum is 40 hours per week by law. And their access to education is limited that is 40% of the children are illiterate and 30% are school dropouts. More than three fourth of the children are paid a wage way below the minimum wage paid to daily laborers anywhere in the city. The children are not allowed to leave their work, which indicates that it is a form of bonded labor. The majority of the children are working in a crowded room where on average three children using two pit-loom are working in one room that serves as a living and working place at the same time. From the child perspective the cost of working is higher than the benefit. This is mainly because they are working under hazardous and exploitative working conditions. Not only are they suffering currently they are also compromising the future too. The employers are exploiting the cheap labor provided by the children almost without any cost. The study recommended that protective, rehabilitative and preventive actions should be taken to improve the work environment and working condition of the children. The actions recommended include the establishment of informal education that takes in to consideration the situation of the children, awareness creation using advocacy as a strategy through partnership with NGO’s, CBO’s and the government. Priority should be given to those children who are working under hazardous and exploitative working conditions.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races |
| Divisions: | Africana |
| Depositing User: | Tim Khabala |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Aug 2018 10:15 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Aug 2018 10:15 |
| URI: | http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/8395 |
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