How necessary is child labour to families in India?
Child labour is a source of income for poor families. A study conducted by the ILO Bureau of Statistics found that “Childrens work was considered essential to maintaining the economic level of households, either in the form of work for wages, of help in household enterprises or of household chores in order to free adult household members for economic activity elsewhere” (Mehra-Kerpelman 1996, 8). In some cases, the study found that a childs income accounted for between 34 and 37 percent of the total household income. This study concludes that a child labourers income is important to the livelihood of a poor family. There is a questionable aspect of this study. It was conducted in the form of a survey, and the responses were given by the parents of the child labourers. Parents would be biased into being compelled to support their decision to send their children to work, by saying that it is essential. They are probably right: for most poor families in India, alternative sources of incom
