Dissertation Research: A Reconsideration of Child Labor in the Contexts of Household Economics and Community Norms

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0234019Nichter / WindThe international effort to end child labor has sometimes been framed as being an ideological battle between Euro-American universalistic conceptions of child development and human rights on the one hand and the culturally specific beliefs and practices of developing countries on the other. Both agencies of the United Nations and child welfare NGOs have emphasized the negative impact of child labor on the physical, mental, and moral health of children. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist will examine the health of child workers in Mysore, India within the context of household livelihood strategies. The student will study a select group of households for one year to determine whether children's contributions to household income differentially affect their access to health-related resources and to identify and compare how a range of work-related variables are perceived as impacting children's health. Interviews with other community members and the staff of local child welfare NGOs will serve to situate the views and practices of individual households within a broader framework of community norms regarding childhood as a life phase, the human rights of children, and the age and gender- appropriateness of different types of work. The broader impacts of this research include advancing our understanding of how communities evaluate the risks associated with child labor, an understanding crucial to the internationally recognized short-term goal of quickly removing children from the most hazardous forms of work. It will also offer important insights into household health and economic logic useful to those designing child survival and poverty alleviation programs. In addition to such practical applications, the research will add to recent social science efforts to discover ways in which universalistic concepts of human rights may find culturally acceptable interpretations in diverse settings. The project also contributes to the education of a young social scientist.