Children's Perspectives on their Working Lives: a participatory study in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, The Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua

Abstract

This report describes a participatory study of children's perspectives on their working lives. It was carried out during 1996/1997 in collaboration with local fieldworkers in four regions of the world, (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, The Philippines, and three Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua). Over 300 children and young people participated in the study, mainly aged 10-14 years. They voiced the perspective of children working in very diverse circumstances in both urban and rural settings. The study aims to inform international and national policy-making on child work issues, and to provide the basis for more effective projects of prevention, intervention and support for working children. The starting-point was the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), particularly the goal of promoting the 'best interests' of children by protecting them from exploitative and harmful work (article 32). The study sought evidence on this issue from working children themselves, engaged in a wide range of occupations, in contrasting regions of the world