Paper short abstract:

Time-use diary data offer a chance to validate and cross-verify child labour quantum estimates within industries in states and regions of India. We provide gender-sensitive age-year estimates, defining 'child labour' as work that is harmful, excessive, or hazardous, using a new national dataset.

Paper long abstract:

The child-labour concept is used to pinpoint attention on hot-spots of exploitation in the realm of employment. In India, 5.8% of children age 6 to 14 were working excessive hours in 2019 (2.5% if we omit unpaid domestic work; the threshold is 38 hours/week). These figures reach 27.5% and 13.5% among children of the same ages who do not attend schools. Such children are harmed when missing formal schooling opportunities, based on ILO definitions. UNICEF, too, is sensitive to the domestic work burden. New national Indian time-use diary data can support child-labour quantum estimates in each state and region of India. The gender-divided age-year estimates rise rapidly in the age range 12 to 17. Based on defining 'child labour' as work that is harmful, excessive, or hazardous, we offer estimates that are sensitive to the risk of measurement error in the time-use diary data.

Measurement error can arise from having 30-minute slot reports of activities, with three activities per slot. We test whether child-labour % within age group varies significantly on the number of tasks recorded in a slot, and explain why. We also test for the impact upon overall hot-spot definitions if we take a conservative, a medium, or a literal view of the 1-2-or-3 tasks in each 30 minute slot. The specific impact of the literal view is that tasks are considered simultaneous, while the conservative view is that they are sequenced. We draw out policy conclusions based on our gender-and-development theoretical standpoint.