ABSTRACT

The study was carried out in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State and the study was based on the demand and supply determinants of child labour among household enterprises in Ikwuano L.G.A., Abia State. Specifically, the study was designed to: describe the socio-economic characteristics (including household size, household income, Gender of household head, per capita expenditure and others) of the respondents; identify which production activities engaged by the respondents necessitates the use of child labour in the household (on demand side) and also the giving out of children to another household to engage in labour (on supply side); ascertain the factors that determine the demand for child labour; ascertain the factors that determine the supply of child labour; and examine the relationship between demand and supply of child labour. Sixty households heads constituted the sample size. Data was collected through questionnaire and interview schedule and these data were analyzed by the use of frequencies, percentages, means, multiple regression and the Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Analyses. It was discovered through the research that 35% of the household were within the age range of 31-40 years having a mean of 74 years. 40% of the household heads had primary incomplete education. 65% of the household heads were married and 70% were males. 55% had household size ranging from 6-10 persons, 40% of the household heads were involve in agriculture as their primary occupation and 35% had household income ranging from 5,000- N15,000 monthly. A total of 75 children were demanded for clearing farm land, 65 for making ridges, 81 for harvesting, 51 for weeding, 90 for post-harvest activities, 57 for hawking, amongst other activities. On the other hand, a total of 47 children were supplied for clearing farm land, 54 for making ridges, 51 for mason work, 54 for weeding 24 for cleaning pen amongst other activities. The percentage for school enrolment for biological, foster children and relative (children) were about 75, 11 and 29 respectively. The maximum number of school attendance in a week for biological, foster children and relatives were 5, 2 and 3 respectively. About 25% of biological children were not enrolled in school, also 89% and 71% of foster children and relative respectively were no enrolled in school as well. Child's age, parents educational level and household size had significant effect on the demand for child labour. Child's age was positively related to demand for child labour, parents educational level was negatively related to the demand for child labour and household size was positively related to the demand for child labour. Whereas child's age, household income and household size had significant effect on supply of child labour by household heads. Child's age was negatively related to the supply of child labour, household income was negatively related to the supply of child labour and household size was positively related to the supply of child labour. These results were contradictory to the null hypothesis but agrees with the a priori expectation. There was a positive relationship between the demand and supply of child labour. Some of the problems of observed to be associated with the use of child labour were unstable education (3.40), child abuse (3.30), exposure of child to physical injuries (3.30), poor child development (3.15), poor child health (3.10) and social damage (3.00). It was recommended that sustainable poverty reduction programme should be provided to help the adults find other opportunities to earn a living. This will substitute income earned by child labourers, thereby minimizing the use of child labour.