Social protection and child labour in Asia

Social protection is increasingly recognised as a key route to reducing children’s poverty and vulnerability. It is assumed to have direct or indirect effects on specific challenges that children face, such as child labour. Child labour is not often included as a main aim of social protection, and therefore is not commonly tracked systematically (de Hoop & Rosati, 2014). There is limited evidence which suggests that social protection programmes have successfully reduced child labour. Most of this evidence comes from Latin America, where social protection programmes are well-established and have been measured over the long-term. This report looks at the general evidence on social protection and child labour, and focuses on programmes in Asia.