Neighbourhoods of the Worst Forms of Child Labour: Centring Children’s Experiences and Perceptions

This research and evidence paper fills a critical gap in understanding how spatial and relationship neighbourhood dynamics contribute to and perpetuate worst forms of child labour from children’s perspectives. Most existing literature related to children’s work focuses on the determinants of child labour and the prevalence of child labour in relation to economic factors and cultural factors. Until recently, there has been little exploration of the role that neighbourhood dynamics play in child labour. This paper, based on evidence collected during five years of the CLARISSA programme (Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia), focuses on how child labourers experience their neighbourhoods and how the characteristics of their neighbourhoods create worst forms of child labour. It brings together findings across the programme and proposes that understanding the worst forms of child labour requires engaging with the neighbourhood dynamics in which they exist.