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Addis Ababa University Libraries Electronic Thesis and Dissertations: AAU-ETD! >
Institute of Regional and Local Development >
Thesis - Regional and Local Development >
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http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/798
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| Title: | CHILD LABOR IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR IN NORTHERN ADDIS ABABA: THE CASE OF WEAVERS AROUND ‘SHERO MEDA’ AREA |
| Authors: | YADETA, LOMI |
| Advisors: | Dr. Assefa Bequele |
| Copyright: | 2002 |
| Date Added: | 21-Apr-2008 |
| Publisher: | Addis Ababa University |
| 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 The secondary data is collected from published and unpublished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. |
| Description: | A Thesis submitted to the school of graduate studies of Addis Ababa University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Regional and Local Development Studies (RLDS) |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/798 |
| Appears in: | Thesis - Regional and Local Development
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