Children’s Engagement with Exploitative Work in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

Despite decades of interventions aiming to reduce child labour, children’s engagement with exploitative work remains widespread, particularly in South Asia. Emerging evidence about cash transfer programmes point towards their potential for reducing children’s engagement with work, but knowledge is scarce in terms of their impact on exploitative work and in urban settings. One component of the CLARISSA programme is to trial an innovative ‘cash plus’ intervention and to learn about its potential for reducing children’s harmful and hazardous work in two slum areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This Working Paper presents findings from a small-scale qualitative study that was undertaken in late 2019, aiming to inform the design of the cash plus intervention. Findings point towards the potential for cash transfers to reduce the need for children to engage in exploitative work and highlight key considerations for design and delivery, including mode and frequency of delivery and engagement with local leaders and community representatives.