Child Labour in the Latin America and Caribbean region : a gender-based analysis

The study examines the child labour phenomenon in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region from a gender perspective. It represents part of a broader effort to improve understanding of how child labour differs by sex, and to ensure that policies relating to child labour adequately reflect these differences. The study encompasses not only girls and boys at work in economic activity, but also those performing household chores in their own homes. The latter group of children, dominated by girls, is frequently overlooked in child labour statistics and in analyses of child labour. This can result in gender biases both in the understanding of child labour and in policies addressing it. The study also looks at girls and boys performing 'double duty' (i.e., both household chores and economic activity for significant amounts of time each week) and reportedly 'inactive' children (i.e., girls and boys neither at work nor attending school). The study is structured as second section provides an overview of data sources, data comparability issues, data gaps and other measurement issues; third section reviews current literature and research on gender and child labour, briefly highlighting the approaches followed and the main results identified; fourth and fifth sections present a range of descriptive indicators of child labour, including total rates of involvement in economic activity and household chores, work intensity (hours worked), school attendance, and reported illness/injury. Differences by sex are examined for each. Building on this descriptive analysis, sixth section looks at household decisions concerning school and work, and how gender considerations might affect these decisions. A bivariate probit model is employed to analyze the relative importance of various child, household, and community factors for families' decisions to involve their boys and girls in work. Seventh section summarizes the main findings and their possible implications for policy. The final section consists of a series of twelve country-specific briefs on the child labour phenomenon and the gender issues associated with it.