Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

This PhD in Creative Writing consists of three parts. The first part is a full-length novel, approximately 80K words, entitled Pure Mafia. It is a drama about child labour and the Pakistani “carpet mafia”. This is intertwined with the story of an unhappily married man undergoing a midlife crisis who has an affair with a younger woman; the latter is instrumental to the main plot about child labour. The book’s second main theme is British Pakistanis. An overarching theme is abuse and exploitation, both personal and global, but ultimately of redemption and renewal. The story is set in 2010/2011, mainly in London, England, with a middle section in Lahore, Pakistan. The second part is an academic thesis, approximately 20K words, entitled Cheap Labour = Child Labour, on the main theme of the novel, child labour. It attempts to show that child labour is an inevitable consequence of cheap labour generally, and that the only way to tackle child labour is to address cheap labour. The thesis has been consciously and deliberately written as an objective, third person, standalone document and for this reason does not mention the novel. It is partly designed to fulfil the general PhD criterion of demonstrating scholarship and research. The third part is a subjective, first person critical commentary, approximately 15K words, on the writing of the novel and the thesis, the connection between them, and the research context; it is entitled Pure Mafia: A critical commentary. It explains why the main thesis is on child labour, rather than on the creative process or an English Literature thesis; however, the commentary does include in some detail an insight into the creative process, as well as a discussion of influences and tradition of writing. The final section of the commentary summarises this entire PhD’s original contribution to knowledge.

Il primo capitolo è dedicato all'evoluzione del diritto minorile in Italia e nel contesto internazionale, in un’ottica storica e sociologica. Dopo una premessa sulle cause strutturali del fenomeno, si offre una panoramica delle fonti normative di diritto interno e internazionale, soprattutto quelle pattizie di derivazione ONU e OIL. Il secondo capitolo si concentra più in dettaglio sulla situazione normativa nazionale. Vengono così prese in particolare considerazione, per la loro rilevanza sistematica e normativa, l’obbligo scolastico e formativo, la tutela sanitaria e le discipline speciali in materia di orario e a tutela della parità di trattamento. Il terzo capitolo completa la lettura giuridica del lavoro minorile affrontandone i risvolti di diritto penale alla luce dell’ultima importante riforma dei delitti contro la persona, che ha previsto specifiche circostanze nei reati connessi con la riduzione in schiavitù quando la vittima sia un minore. Infine, l’elaborato è corredato da un’appendice che espone i dati più recenti e significativi in materia di lavoro minorile nella provincia di Milano all’esito degli interventi ispettivi. / The first chapter deals with the historical and sociological evolution of the so-called “child law”, both in Italy and in the international community. An introduction about the structural causes is followed by an overview of the Italian law and in the international treaties, mainly those sponsored by the UNO and ILO. The second chapter focuses on the Italian law, thus analyzing the specific rulings about compulsory school attendance, health and injuries care, working time and equal opportunities. The third and last chapter shows the implications of the criminal law in the subject matter. A special attention is paid to the latest rules about the offences against the person, in particular slavery against children. This work also provides an interesting data analysis related to the situation of child labor in Milan, as carried by the outcomes of the public authorities’ monitoring operations.

The poverty of the individual household is a leading cause of children engaging in work in order to contribute to household survival. The importance of children's financial contribution to the household means that in order to eliminate child labour, alternative sources of income have to be made available. / Microfinance is perceived to have the potential of addressing these issues by enabling households to save or borrow money to start up or expand enterprises thereby securing additional income and making children's financial contribution to a household less significant. However, while microfinance is considered a tool designed for the poor, it has been shown to have difficulties in reaching the poorest households, which is also the very group most at risk of having to rely on child labour for survival. Furthermore, the limited credit available through microfinance, and the lack of special skills frequently force entrepreneurs to engage in labour intensive activities with marginal profits. These types of activities are also where children are often found to be working. / Based on data collected from two urban areas in the Philippines using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this thesis reviews microfinance as a tool in targeting child labour. Specifically it analyses the extent to which microfinance contributes to a decrease or increase in child labour and whether the impact varies according to the gender of the child. The thesis also reviews the ability of microfinance to affect all households with working children, and how the findings correspond with current economic theories on the household. / This research shows that in the selected areas the main reasons for children engaging in economic work arise from either: the need to generate an additional income from outside the household setting, in part to cover educational and other expenses brought on by the child him or herself; or the role of children as supplier of additional labour input into labour intensive household enterprises, in particular those which are the main source of income for the household. Children, in particular girls, also frequently act as labour substitutes for the mother in household work. / This thesis confirms that microfinance programs have difficulties in reaching all households with child labourers. The main reasons are risk aversion among the poorest households and the apparent direct or indirect exclusion of this group by other members of the programs. The main cause of the risk aversion arises from the fear of being excluded from essential informal credit networks on which the poorest households in particular depend. / Microfinance has the ability to impact on households where children work to generate an extra source of income. For households which depend on children's input into the household MSE, there appear to he limited impact of microfinance participation on the households' need for child labour. There are indications that the household's ability to benefit from microfinance participation depends on its existing income level. While the aim of the microfinance programmes is to support the creation or expansion of enterprises, the intense competition and low marginal returns means that closure rates are high. As a consequence the effects of microfinance loans are often short lived. Further, microfinance loans are unable to change the labour intensive nature of the production and the household dependence on children's labour. This research also finds that the impact differs between children as there is a strong division of children's work based on gender and age.

This thesis deals with child labour, mostly in developing countries, which are also one of the poorest regions of the planet. The aim is to determine the method of comparative analysis here the emphasis on improving children's education can be a tool to eradicate both child labour and poverty. The thesis also deals with the idea that child labour is a consequence or cause of poverty. The theoretical part deals with basic concepts, such as child labour, childhood, the importance of education. The theoretical part also deals with international organizations such as ILO, UN and OECD which are actively involved in the fight for children's rights and actively promotes the idea of removing children from work. In the practical part of my thesis I examined whether in the past programs for reduction of child labour and increase education to be successful. I also discussed a unique approach to education of young workers in companies of Henry Ford and Thomas Milton Hershey and Jan Antonín Bata. In the practical part I analyze also a new approach to the eradication of child labour through education programs for reduction of child labor in India, primarily in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Child labour is closely associated with poverty. However, the direction of causality is an empirical question. There is need to control for potential endogeneity in order to be able to adequately estimate the factors that determine child labour. This study proposed a model of an agricultural household to explain the factors that affect the household's decision to involve their children in child labour and the type of influence each factor has on the household. These factors include household resources, child characteristics, community characteristics, school availability, etc. The data was analysed using both Tobit and Logit models. The Tobit model was used to find the relationship between the factors and duration of child work while the Logit model was used for the participation of the child in farm work. The outcome of the analysis showed that among agricultural households in Ethiopia, child labour is a normal good increasing with income. However, the impact on the male child was different from that of the female child, suggesting that gender bias with respect to child labour might exist in Ethiopia. The male child is made to participate more in farm work than the female child, though the females responded more to household land holding (size). This can be attributed to the need for the household decision maker to substitute household chores performed by the female child for farm work. The substitution effect of increase in income on household decision on child farm work is higher than the income effect, irrespective of the gender of the child, although the effect was significant for the male child but not significant for the female child. Also, school availability is a very important factor for both the male and the female child. The impact of household size in this analysis suggests the presence of division of labour, and the significance of the mother's education on the female child's response suggests that the effect of cultural belief system changes with the mother's education. / Dissertation (MSc (Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MSc (Agric) / Unrestricted

This thesis consists of three papers on child labour and schooling in Ghana. The first paper examines the correlates of child labour and schooling, as well as the trade-off between work and schooling of children aged 5-17 years with the 2013 Ghana Living Standard Survey data. A bivariate probit model is used since the decisions to participate in schooling and in the labour market are interdependent. The results show that there is a gender gap both in child work and schooling. In particular, boys are less likely to work (and more likely to be enrolled in schools) relative to girls. Whereas parent education, household wealth and income of the family are negatively correlated with child work, these factors influence schooling positively. In addition, parents‟ employment status, ownership of livestock, distance to school, child wage and schooling expenditure increase the probability of child labour and reduce the likelihood of school enrolment. In terms of the relationship between child labour and schooling, the results show that an additional hour of child labour is associated with 0.15 hour (9 minutes) reduction in daily hours of school attendance; and the effect is bigger for girls relative to boys. Also, one more hour of child labour is associated with an increase in the probability of a child falling behind in grade progression by 1.4 percentage points. The second paper estimates the impact of Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer programme on schooling outcomes (enrolment, attendance hours, repetition and test scores) and child labour in farming and non-farm enterprises. Using longitudinal data, the paper employs three different quasi-experimental methods (propensity score matching, difference-in-difference, and difference-in-difference combined with matching). Overall, the results show that the LEAP programme had no effect on school enrolment and test scores, but it increased the weekly hours of class attendance by 5.2 hours and reduced repetition rate by 11 percentage points for children in households that benefited from the programme. In addition, there was heterogeneity in these impacts, with boys benefiting more relative to girls. In terms of child labour, the results show that the programme had no effect on the extensive margin of child labour in farming and non-farm enterprises. However, the LEAP programme reduced the intensity of farm work done by children by as much as 2.6 hours per day. The largest impact of the programme, in terms of iii reduction in the intensity of child labour in farming, occurred in female-headed and extremely poor households. The last paper investigates the impact of mothers‟ autonomy or bargaining power in the household on their children’s schooling and child labour in Ghana. The paper uses a noneconomic measure of women’[s autonomy, which is an index constructed from five questions on power relations between men and women. The paper employs both an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and an Instrumental Variable (IV) approach. Overall, the results suggest that ignoring the endogeneity of mothers‟ autonomy underestimates its true impact on schooling and child labour. They also show that an increase in mothers‟ autonomy increases school enrolment and hours of class attendance, with girls benefiting more than boys. The paper finds a negative relationship between mothers‟ autonomy and both the extensive and intensive margin of child labour. In addition, it demonstrates that improvement in women’s autonomy has bigger impacts on rural children’s welfare relative to urban children.

The socio-economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is breeding poverty which forces children to drop out of school and find a way to survive. Children in Zimbabwe no longer work for extra income to spend with peers or to pay for school fees, but they work for their survival. Therefore this is a study on child labour. Zimbabwe is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child however, all these laws are not helping to mitigate against child labour. Despite the existence of child labour in Zimbabwe there has been little theological response. The current theological debates have overlooked the suffering of children through child labour. This argument refers to both academic and church theology. The basic theological argument in this study is that in order to protect children from child labour there is need to construct a liberative theology of children which focuses on; dignity, identity, love, justice and freedom. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

8. RESUMÉ This graduation thesis deals with a child forced labour, its determination and means of the international law to combat child labour. The aim of the thesis is to clarify the concept of child labour from the view of the international law and to summarize the most important means of the protection of children from economic exploitation. It tries to compare these measures and find out, if they are able to change or influence the situation of children forced to work in a real life. I focused on the most significant universally operating international organizations, whose international law documents deal with the prohibition of child labour, as well as important international organizations and their documents in the regional level. The concept of the child forced labour was explained trough international law documents and scientific works from the field of international law and international law of human rights as well. In the same way it was proceeded to find substantial characters of supervisory mechanisms to particular international conventions. The thesis in the same time refers to details that appear trough practice of mechanisms, there are explained basic concepts and differences in decisions. Working and effectiveness of international bodies with competence in child forced labour were researched...

Este estudo objetivou identificar as repercussões do trabalho na vida de adolescentes de uma cidade do interior de Minas Gerais, segundo a ótica dos próprios trabalhadores. Trata-se de uma investigação quanti-qualitativa, com o uso de estatística descritiva e análise de conteúdo para o tratamento dos dados. Participaram da pesquisa 66 adolescentes e os resultados revelaram uma composição com uma média de cinco pessoas por família, renda de um a três salários-mínimos, sendo que 27 (40,91%) realizavam o trabalho nas ruas e 39 (59,09%) em setores administrativos de diversas instituições. Quanto ao tempo de trabalho, 24 (36,36%) trabalhavam de sete a 12 meses; nove (13,64%) adolescentes referiram ter sofrido Acidente de Trabalho e quatro (6,06%) já adoeceram por causa do trabalho. As categorias abstraídas dos depoimentos para a identificação do significado do trabalho para os adolescentes foram: independência financeira; ajuda familiar; valoração pessoal e valoração profissional. As repercussões positivas apontam o desenvolvimento de habilidades de relacionamento interpessoal e de comunicação; desenvolvimento pessoal, intelectual e físico; independência e liberdade; ocupação do tempo e a melhoria na condição de vida. As repercussões negativas incluíram: cansaço e preocupação; falta de tempo para lazer, estudos, convívio familiar e com amigos e riscos do trabalho. Quanto à opinião da família acerca da condição ocupacional do adolescente emergiram três categorias temáticas: apoio, aspecto financeiro e oportunidade. Concluiu-se que o adolescente tem uma visão positiva do trabalho e reconhece os malefícios e benefícios do trabalho em sua vida / This study aimed to identify the repercussions of work in adolescents life in a city in the interior of Minas Gerais (Brazil), according to workers perspective. It is a quantitative and qualitative study, using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Subjects were 66 adolescents and results showed a family composition with an average of five people and family income from one to three minimum wages; 27 (40.91%) of them have field works and 39 (59,09%) work in administrative sectors of different institutions. Regarding time of work, 24 (36,36%) had worked from 7 to 12 months. Nine (13,64%) adolescents mentioned having Occupational Accidents and four (6,06%) have already been taken ill because of work. Financial independence, family help and personal and professional valuation were the categories attributed to the meaning of work. The positive repercussions were development of social and communicative abilities, personal, physical and intellectual development, independence and liberty, to occupy the spare time and improvement in living conditions. The negative repercussions included: tiredness, preoccupation, loss of time spent with family and friends, occupational risks and lack of time for study and leisure. Three thematic categories emerged from the opinion of the families about the occupational condition: support, financial aspect and opportunity. It is concluded that the adolescent has a positive view of work, attributing different meanings to it, family also have this viewpoint, even recognizing the interferences of work in adolescents life