Situation Report on Child Labour

(Plantation, Fire-Works Industry, Tile Industry,

Coir Industry & Fishery )

Final Report

International
Programme
on the Elimination
of Child Labour
(IPEC)

March 2008
ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).
Copyright © International Labour Organization 2010 – ISBN: 978-92-2-127273-1 (Web PDF).
ILO's publications enjoy copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention.
Nevertheless, short excerpts from them may be reproduced without authorization,
on condition that the source is indicated.
For rights of reproduction or translation, application should be send to [email protected].
Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Plantation Sector
Chapter 3: Fire-Works Industry
Chapter 4: Tile Industry
Chapter 5: Coir Industry
Chapter 5: Fishery Sector

Annexure 1: Questionnaire

3
 Introduction

1.1 Background and Scope of Study

This report is the outcome of a study conducted by the Survey and Research Unit of the
Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC) of the Faculty of Arts, University of
Colombo for the ILO. on child labor in five distinctive sectors that are vulnerable to child
labor in Sri Lanka. The sectors surveyed are, the plantation sector, the fisheries sector,
the coir industry, the tile industry and the firework industry.
This introductory chapter of the report outlines the background information on the
problems of child labour highlighting the existing legal and institutional framework to
deal with the problem in Sri Lanka. Various concepts and definitions of child labour are
discussed and a working definition for the study is provided.

Child labour is seen as a serious problem in the developing world where the largest
proportion of the less privileged and low income groups resides. Although the efforts of
the national governments in collaboration with the international community in the past
have led to some break through in combating child labor and safeguarding children’s
rights, the problem still looms large in many parts of the world. Sri Lanka, as a country
committed to safeguarding the rights of children has ratified almost all conventions
related to labor by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations
(UN), in addition to national initiatives by the Sri Lankan government’s efforts in dealing
with children’s rights and related issues. Sri Lanka has achieved remarkable success in
enrolling almost all children is primary schools, a goal which is prominent among the
millennium Development Goals [MDGs]. Sri Lankan laws ban the practice of child labor.
However, child labor still remains a matter of concern as high school drop out rate are
reported at the secondary level leaving the younger population more vulnerable and
exposed to the informal labor market.

4
1.2 The issue of Child labor in Sri Lanka
The International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions No. 138 and 182, define hazardous work by
children as any activity or occupation, which by its nature or type has or leads to adverse effects on the
child’s safety, health (physical or mental), and moral development. Hazards could also derive from
excessive workload, physical conditions of work, work intensity in terms of duration of work where the
activity is known to be non-hazardous or ‘safe’.
In short child labor can be defined as something that harms children’s wellbeing and
jeopardizes their development and violates their rights.

It is illegal to employ anyone below the age of 14 in Sri Lanka, although the UN
convention on the rights of children (UNCRC, 1989) itself defines children as anyone
below 18 years of age.

It is interesting to note that the definition given to labor force in Sri Lanka seems to be
inconsistent with both of the above age limits related to child labor. In Sri Lanka the
labor force includes economically active population above 10 years of age.
In Sri Lanka, the total number of children aged between 5 and 14 was around 3.18 million
out of which about 0.475 million are engaged in some kind of work (ILO 2004).
A survey by the census and statistical department found that more than 90 per cent of
child workers are engaged in activities in the agriculture sector.

While almost all children are enrolled in primary school education, secondary enrolment
is less than one half leaving many children available to be used as labor. Concerned
parties argue that weak social infrastructure is a major contributor to the problem than
the lax Sri Lankan Law allowing anyone who is 14 years to be out of school and in
employment. In most cases in the rural areas, parents would like to send their children
but the quality of education in remote areas, though it is free acts as a disincentive to
parents.

Child labor is a survival strategy in many rural areas and in the plantations in Sri Lanka.

5
Poor income of the family seems to have been the major factor contributing to child
labor. Hence any attempt to reduce child labor has to ensure that the income lost by
pulling out the child out of employment does not entail the impoverishment of the
particular families.

1.3 Factors contributing to child labor in Sri Lanka

Past research has identified several factors that contribute significantly to child labor.
The decision of a child to engage in an economic activity for a payment can be influenced
by a host of mutually non exclusive factors. Some of these factors are listed below

• Parental poverty and illiteracy

• Poor social and economic circumstances
• Lack of awareness
• Lack of access to basic and quality education and skills
• High rate of adult unemployment /under employment
• Attitudes towards child labour (particularly in South Asia) children are expected
to perform physical work as early as 10 years old in some countries
1.4 Forms of Child Labor
Child labor can take many forms. The main types of child labor are listed below:
I. Child domestic labor
II. Children working in hazardous industries
III. Children working in export industries
IV. Child trafficking (both internally and across borders)
V. Bonded child labor in agriculture and certain parts of the industrial and informal
sector.
I. Child Domestic Labor
In Sri Lanka, child domestic labor has been culturally accepted and commonly practiced.
Child Domestic Labor refers to situations where children are engaged to perform
household work in the home of a third party or employer.

6
The International Labor Organization (ILO) Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention
(No.182) 1999 defines worst forms of child labor as where CDL is exploitative and
includes trafficking, slavery, or practices similar to slavery or work which by its nature
or the circumstances in which it is carried out is likely to be harmful to health, safety, or
morals of the child.

The incidence of child domestic Labor in Sri Lanka is estimated to be around 100,000 in
1999. However, according to The National Child Protection Authority, there was a
reduction in child labor of 10 to 15 fold following the intensified efforts by authorities
and a wide media campaign against domestic child labor. The NCPA reports that using
children as domestic servants has become a taboo today following the media awareness
campaign (Island 12, January 2006)

II. Children Working in Hazardous Industries

In Sri Lanka, working in hazardous industries seems to be less problematic since,
according to a child activity survey carried out by the Department of Census and
Statistics and Ministry of Finance in 1999, nearly 90 per cent of the working children in
the age group of 5 to 17 years have never experienced a health, or safety hazard due to the
activity in which they were engaged.

III. Child trafficking

Child trafficking is another aspect of child labor. Sri Lankan experience shows that
armed conflicts have increased children’s and women’s vulnerability to trafficking.
According to an IPEC project for combating Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in
Sri Lanka an estimated 5000 incidences of internal child trafficking and some sporadic
incidences of cross border trafficking were also reported.

1.5 Institutional and legal provisions in relation to child labor

In addition to country and regional initiatives in protecting children’s rights, the
international efforts in combating child labor and child abuse since the late 1950s have
produced an international framework to safeguard children’s rights.

7
The main international treaties relevant to child labor are the following:
a. ILO Minimum Age Convention (No.138), 1973
b. ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor (No.182), 1999.
c. ILO Forced Labor Convention (No.29), 1930
d. ILO Abolition of Forced Labor Convention (No.105), 1957
e. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 1989
f. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially
Women and Children, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational
Organized Crimes, 2000.
Sri Lanka has ratified all four ILO conventions related to child labor and the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989.

1.6 Working Definition of Child Labor in the Study

The working definition of child labor has been formulated in consultation with IPEC as
“any child aged between 5 and 17 years who are engaged for one hour or more in an
economic activity during the reference period of past 7 days.”
Economic activity was defined as an activity in which the child is engaged for a payment,
profit, or family gain. A child could also be engaged in an economic activity while
attending an educational institution and/or engaged in housekeeping activities. In this
survey, a child was considered a student if he or she was attending school or any other
educational establishment that provides regular education, technical vocational training.

The rest of this report is organized as follows: chapter two deals with the issue of child
labor in the plantation sector while chapter three is on the same issue in the fisheries
sector. A detailed account on Child labor in the coir, the tile, and the firework industries
is made in the chapters four, five and six respectively. Chapter seven summarises major
findings and offers a conclusion to the report.

8
1.7. Objective of the Survey
The objective of the surveys on fireworks, fishery, coir and tile industries and plantation
sectors is to estimate through a household based survey the size of the child workers
population directly involved in the production process, as well as the number of migrant
child workers in the plantation sector who were sent from these communities into other
parts of the country as CDW, garment factory workers etc. Further, an estimate of the
number of children at risk (siblings and other children in the same household/community
not working but at risk of working) would also be captured. A close attention will be paid
in the survey of fireworks to capture the peak season realities of the child workers
population.

In the plantation sector survey, particular emphasis will be paid to the assessment of the
economic and non-economic vulnerability of the households despite their relatively higher
incomes, and to understand why they are compelled to send their children to cities to work
after grade 8-9 rather than complete their O-levels and A-levels, the various forms of child
labour that exist, and the community level constraints that households face.

1.8. Survey Methodology

The survey methodology was based on the guidelines given by ILO-IPEC. Both quantitative
and qualitative data have been collected. Quantitative data were collected through
administering a pre-coded questionnaire to parents in selected households, while qualitative
data have been collected through conducting in-depth interviews and case studies.

Sample size
No. of respondents
Sector District In-depth
Household
interviews
Badulla 100 5
Kandy 100 5
Matale 100 5
Plantation
Nuwara Eliya 100 5
Ratnapura 100 5
Kegalle 100 5
Gampaha 100 5
Firework
Kandy 100 5
Gampaha 200 5
Tile
Puttalam 200 5

9
 No. of respondents
Sector District In-depth
Household
interviews
Galle 200 5
Coir
Matara 200 5
Galle 200 5
Fisheries
Matara 200 5

1.9 Instruments and methods of data collection

A pre-coded, close-ended questionnaire was administered to a parent (mother or father).
The objective of the questionnaire was to assess the vulnerability of the household from the
perspective of the head of the household. Questions on livelihood, expenditure and income,
accessibility and quality of children’s educational opportunities, type of migrant child
labour (in the plantation sector survey), the work conditions and its associated hazards,
health and socio-economic conditions have been included.

A separate questionnaire was administered to understand the situation and reality of the
working children. The questionnaire on working children had modules on conditions of
work, hazards at work, and other relevant socio-economic modules. The child
himself/herself could verify which part of the production process he/she was employed in
amongst other things if the child was available in the selected house or in the locality.

Qualitative information that provides the policy context of a community and sector was
used to complement and strengthen the quantitative data.

In addition, key informant interviews were conducted with school principals, health and
social workers, mid-wives, EMA etc

10
 Chapter 2: Plantation Sector

2.1 Introduction to Plantation sector

The plantation sector contributes significantly to the country’s national economy in
addition to creating employment opportunities. The plantations since their inception in
the 19th century remained as closed enclaves maintaining minimum links with outside
communities. Even today, the plantation community remains relatively isolated from
other communities in relation to their economic activities, political participation, and
cultural and religious affairs. The plantation sector is also an area of concern in relation
to child labor in the country. The problem of child labor in plantations may also have its
unique characteristics since the plantation community itself remains district.

The field research for this study was conducted in five districts of Sri Lanka: Badulla,
Kandy, Kegalle, Nuwaraeliya, and Ratnapura where the main concentrations of
plantations are located.

2.2 Objectives of the Study

The primary objective of the research in the plantation sector, as has been outlined in the
Terms of Reference, was to estimate through a household based survey, the size of the
child workers population directly involved in the production process as well as the
number of migrant child workers in the plantation sector.

As has been emphasized in the terms of reference, the study was also intended to assess
the economic and non economic vulnerability of the households in the selected
plantations in order to identify the reasons as why the household are compelled to send
their children to cities to work after grade 8-9 rather than encouraging them to complete
their O- levels and A-levels.
Also the study tries to understand the various forms of child labor that exist, and the
community level constraints that households encounter.

11
2.3 Methodology
The study has employed both quantitative as well as qualitative research tools. A
structured questionnaire was designed in consultation with the ILO and administrated
to the selected household in the Badulla, Kandy, Kegalle, Nuwaraeliya, and Ratnapura
districts. First the questionnaire was administrated to the main respondent of the
household (usually the head of the household). In depth interviews were conducted with
the main respondent as well as with the working children (in the cases where child
labourers) were found in the household. In addition to the household survey and in
depth interviews, key persons such as Grama Niladari (village officers), religious leaders
and estate leaders were interviewed.

2.4 The Sample

The six survey districts (Badulla, Ratnapura,Kegalle,Kandy,Matale, Nuwara Eliya ) from
three provinces (Uva, Sabaragamuwa and Central) were pre selected by IPEC on the
basis of concentration of plantations. A total number of 600 households from six districts
were selected for the survey. From each districts one estate was selected at random from
the list of estates located in the district. In the final stage, 100 households from each
estate were selected at random for the survey.

In addition to the sample survey, 4 in-depth interviews were also conducted from each
district.

Table 2.1 a Distribution of the Sample: Provincial, District level classification.

Provinces Uva Sabaragamuwa Central Total

Districts Badulla Ratnapura Kegalle Kandy Matale Nuwara-Eliya
100 100 100 100 100 100 600
No. of respondents
4 4 4 4 4 4 24
No. of case studies

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Table 2. 1 b. Distribution of sample by Estate
Number of
District DS Division Estate
Households
Mathale Raththotta NikalaOya 100
Kandy Panwilla Raaxawa Estate 100
Kegalle Daraniyagala Miyanawita 100
Rathnapura Godakawela Springwoods 100
Nuwaraelliya Walapane High forest 100
Badulla Wallimada Dayaraba 100
Total 600

2.5 Significance of the Plantation Sector in the Sri Lankan economy.

The contribution of the plantation sector, mainly, tea and rubber to the country’s GDP
was less than two percent in 2007. As an export item plantation commodities account
for more than 38 per cent to total merchandise exports and 6.8 percent to total exports.
The plantation sector exports earnings are an important source of revenue for Sri Lanka
in terms of local value addition. Next to garments exports and worker remittances from
abroad, plantation exports are the largest revenue earner for Sri Lanka.

The use of child labor in tea production has been reported in Sri Lanka. A 1995 survey of
3,000 households on 100 tea estates found that youth 10-19 years of age made up about
four per cent of the work force. The survey also reported that children not attending
school, some under the age 10 were found weeding; a function estate management
contracts out to families in acre units (Labor force Survey 1996).

However, Sri Lanka has tended to create an impression that child labor is not a serious
issue in plantations. The reason was that plantation management can not hire children
legally as laborers. However, tea plantations have been a traditional source of child
domestic labor.
2.6 Major Characteristics of the Households selected for the Survey
The major characteristics of the households can be analyzed in terms of age of household
head, level of education, employment, level of income, level of debt burden, perceptions
on quality of the household and perception on income.

13
Table 2.2 Ages of Head of Household
Age Group Percentage
15-19 Years 0.2
20-24 Years 1.0
25-29 Years 6.2
30-34 Years 10.3
35-39 Years 9.3
40-44 Years 12.0
45-49 Years 14.5
50-54 Years 12.2
55-59 Years 15.3
60-64 Years 11.5
65-70 Years 3.0
Above 70years 4.2

The majority of the household heads of this survey was more than 30 years old and 72.2
percent are more than 40 years old. One implication of this would be that these families
need the support of their children to maintain their families. Since the parents getting
old the children also feel that they should financially support them.
Table 2.3 Level of Education of the head of household
Level of Education Percentage
Illiterate 9.0
No formal education but can read & write 3.0
Pre school 1.8
Primary school (class 1-5) 51.0
Upper primary school (class 6-8) 20.9
Lower secondary (class 9-10) 12.0
Upper secondary (class 10-13) 2.2
Total 100.0

Levels of education of the head of household will be an important factor having a direct
impact on child labor. Level of education of parents is a factor that conditions their
perception on the children’s education and the attitudes towards child labor. It is
reported in the survey that more than half of the household heads have received only
primary education. Only 2.2 percent of the heads of households have received upper
secondary education.

14
Table 2.4 Marital status of household head
Marrital Status Percentage
1 Never married 1.8
2 Currently married 81.0
3 Separated 1.2
4 Divorced 0.5
5 Widowed 15.5
Total 100.0

Marital status plays a role in determining the household’s economic and social
characteristics. The table 2.4 shows that 16 percent of the household heads were
widowed which seems to be a very high figure. And also widowed parents most of the
time lose the support from others and have to manage the household with the income of
a single breadwinner. This compels children to seek employment to support the family.

Table 2.5 Main Economic activity of household head

Economic activity Percentage
Employed 75.8
Unemployed 2.3
Household work 2.8
Retired/unable to work 19.0
Total 100.0

Nearly one fifth of the household heads were retired or not in a position to engage in
economic activities and hence there is every possibility for child labor in such families.
The survey reveals that 75.8 percent of the household head were employed. Only about 3
percent of the household heads are unemployed in the sample. This no doubt affects their
families.

Table 2.6 Monthly Family Income of Households

Monthly Income Intervals Percentage of households
Less than Rs. 5000.00 12,0
Rs. 5000.00 - Rs.10,000.00 40.7

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 Monthly Income Intervals Percentage of households
Rs. 10,000.00 – Rs. 15,000.00 22.6
Rs. 15,000.00 – Rs. 20,000.00 13.0
Rs. 20,000.00 – Rs. 25,000.00 5.9
Rs. 25,000.00 – Rs. 30,000.00 2.6
Rs. 30,000.00 – Rs. 35,000.00 2.0
More than Rs. 35,000.00 1.2
Total 100.0

Nearly 53 per cent of the households in the sample receive a monthly income of less than
Rs.10,000.00 and an overwhelming majority of 88 percent of the households receive a
maximum of Rs. 20,000.00 a month. However at lower end 12 percent of the households
receive a monthly income less than Rs 5,000.00. The national average income of a family
in Sri Lanka stood around Rs. 12,803.00 a month and in the plantation sector’s average
income was reported to be Rs. 7,303.00 in 2002. Clearly this figure is much less than that
of the urban and rural sectors that received an average income of Rs. 22,420.00 and Rs.
11,712.00 respectively. However, it has been pointed out in many discussions that the
average salaries of plantation workers were higher than those obtained in the rural
communities in Sri Lanka.

Table 2.7 Adequacy of Income to support the family

Perception Percentage
Adequate 37.3
Inadequate 62.7
Total 100.00

Although estate workers receive a basic fixed income, for the majority, the income is
insufficient to meet the expenses including the schooling of children. In this survey,
nearly 63 percent of the household heads stated that their income was insufficient to
support the family, and naturally this can induce children to seek employment.

16
Table 2.8 Debt burden of the household
Perception Percentage
Yes 42.2
No 53.8
Total 100.00

More than half of the households surveyed suffer from the debt burden and the size of
debt burden varied from less than Rs.10,000 to more than Rs. 50,000. Nearly 70 percent
of the indebted households owe Rs. 30,000 or less to their creditors, which is
considerable amount given the low level of income of many families. Although there were
no causes of bonded child labor in the plantation sector, children may have been
compelled to work in order to help the family to relieve itself from debt burden.

Table 2.9 The Size of debt burden of the household

Size of debt percentage
Less than Rs.10,000 42.2
Rs.10,000 – Rs. 20,000 22.4
Rs.20,000 – Rs. 30,000 12.3
Rs.30,000 – Rs. 40,000 6.1
Rs.40,000 – Rs. 50,000 7.6
Above Rs. 50,000 9.4

Table 2.10 Perception on the quality of the house

Perception Percentage
Poor 60.7
Fair 34.7
Good 4.6
Total 100.0

An overwhelming majority (95 percent) of the household heads felt that the quality of
their house was poor or fair. Despite some government efforts to improve the quality of
the houses of estate workers, due to various practical reasons, for the majority the quality
and the conditions of the household is extremely unsatisfactory. This is having a negative
impact on children doing school work. Inadequate space in the house compels children

17
to study in the common space shared by all members in the household. Extended families
are forced to live in the same household in some cases leading to many family problems.
Particularly, in the case of a family member addicted to alcohol the plight of the child is
often to be miserable.

Main findings of the key informant interviews_ Kandy District

The main problem is insufficient income. Although the people are employed in the estate, their income is
insufficient to meet the expenses of schooling of their children. Majority of estate workers take loans to
meet the expenditure gap under the condition of repayment of the loan at the end of the month.
These people are not eligible for government support such as Samurdhi benefit since they are employed.
Yet, they sometimes earn even less than 2000 rupee a month from their work
Since the salary is insufficient to meet the daily expenditure the estate workers seek casual jobs in the
nearby villages for 2 or 3 days a week. They can earn a daily wage of Rs. 500 to Rs. 600 from such casual
work
The younger generation does not like to work in the estate. They wait till the reach working age and then
migrate to find employment outside the estate. Boys find employment mainly in and around Colombo.
Girls seek employment is garment factories. They find employment through person who already employed
in these institutions.

Many children aged 14-15 years stop schooling and spend their time in playing. Children older than 10
years go to nearby villages for clove plucking during the harvest season. Clove harvest is a dangerous task.
Clove tree branches are weak and thus an adult cannot climb the tree for harvesting. Children are versatile
to move quickly from one branch to another, despite the danger of falling from trees. Hence children find
an opportunity for making money. They can earn Rs.40 to Rs. 45 for every kilogram of clove they harvest.
On average, each child can easily harvest more than 45 kilograms a day and therefore can make Rs. 600 –
Rs.700 per day.
This money attracts many children into this activity though the harvest season of clove lasts only a few
months if not weeks. Though the school administration often takes stern action against this practice,
children engage in this activity after school hours for which the school administration has no control.
These children give their earnings to their parents/guardians and spend a portion of it by themselves. Even
the parents do not object to their kids making money at the expense of schooling.

2.7 Child Labor in the Plantations:

A total 2999 children are in the sample out of which only 43 are employed as workers.
The following section provides a closer look at the activities of the children and those
who are employed.

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Table 2.11 Main Economic activity of Children (age groups)
Economic Activity 5-13 years% 14-17 years % Total %
Employed 0.8 16.9 5.9
Unemployed - 4.0 1.3
Student 98.4 73.8 90.6
Household work 0.8 1.8 1.0
Unable to work (disabled) - 2.2 1.0
Schooling & unpaid family 0.2 1.3 0.7
worker
Total 100.0 100.0 0.6

This study shows that an overwhelming majority of children in the study area aged
between 5-13 years were students and currently attending school and other educational
institutions. Only 0.8 percent of children in this age group were employed, confirming
that the primary enrolment rate in the plantations sector is on par with the national
average.

However, it is quite revealing that the student percentage of children falling under the
age group of 14-17 years records a drop to 73.8 percent. Likewise, employed category of
this age group increased up to 17 percent. This clearly indicates that the children do not
continue with their education although almost all of them were enrolled in the primary
education. Lack of quality educational facilities at the secondary level, low family income
household environment, and attractive alternative opportunities for work play an
important role in the above regard.
Table 2.12 Main economic activity of children in the selected districts %
Economic activity Matale Kandy Kegalle Ratna Nuwara Badulla Total
pura eliya
Employed 4.2 4.2 11.6 2.7 8.6 4.5 5.9
Unemployed 1.0 0.8 0.9 1.8 3.4 1.3
Student 92.7 91.7 87.5 94.0 82.8 93.5 90.6
Household work 1.0 1.7 - 0.9 0.9 1.3 1.0
Unable to work (disabled) 1.0 1.7 - - 1.7 - 0.7
Schooling & unpaid family worker - - - - 2.6 0.6 0.6
Total 100.0 100.0 100 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

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Table 2.13 Type of employment of working child
Type of employment Percentage
Unpaid family worker 20.9
Paid employee (regular) 39.5
Paid employee (casual) 37.2
Others 2.3
Total 100.0

A majority of child workers (76%) are either regular or casual paid employees. More
than 20 percent are engaged in unpaid family works.
Table 2.14 Work place of child labor
Work place Percentage
Home 2.4
Factory 4.9
Shops/butiques 17.1
Field 70.7
Employer’s house 4.9
Total 100.0

Most of the child workers are employed in the filed, particularly in farming actives in the
nearby villages. They return home in the evening after work and do not stay away from
home. More than 17 percent are employed in chops and boutiques often located far away
from their homes. Nearly 5 percent are employed in the employer’s houses. They may be
considered as domestic child workers.
Table 2.15 Working hours per week
Number of hours Percentage
Less than 10 hours 19.5
10-20 hours 17.0
20-30 hours 4.9
30-40 hours 19.5
40-50 hours 4.8
50-60 hours 24.4
More than 60 hours 9.8
Total 100.0

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Working hours of child workers vary to a considerable extent and nearly one fourth of
the working children work 50 to 60 hours per week.

Table 2.16 Reasons for child labor

Reasons for child labor Percentage
Cannot afford schooling 28.6
Family requires the child’s income 33.3
Child has reached the working age 7.1
No opportunity to do another job 9.5
Do not have enough land for farming 2.4
Children help family business voluntarily 11.9
Children do not like to go to school 7.1
Total 100.0

According to Table 3.15 the major reason for child labour is poverty. Nearly 30 percent of
the household heads said that they cannot afford schooling of their children and more
than 33 percent expressed that they require the child’s income to maintain the family.
Table 2.17 Decision making on child labor
The person who made the decision Percentage
Him/her self 83.3
Father 11.9
Mother 4.8
Total 100.0

The decision on child labor as reported in table 3.16 has been made by the child
him/herself in most cases. Fathers also made decisions to send their children to work.
Mother decisions on the matter is insignificant and it this not surprising in a male
dominant society such as the plantation community.

Table 2.18 Receiving and spending of income earned from child labor
Payment received/spend by Receiving Spending
Percentage percentage
Him/her self 62.5 30.0
Mother 22.5 45.0

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Payment received/spend by Receiving Spending
Percentage percentage
Father 12.5 22.5
Others 2.5 2.5
Total 100.0 100.0

The income generated by child labor was received mainly by the child him/herself. It is
quite interesting to note that, although the mother does not have a significant role in the
decision making with regard to child labor, she received a considerable proportion of the
income generated by child labor. On the expenditure side, it is the mother who spends
most of the money from child labor. Although 62.5 percent of the working children
receive their salary by themselves, only 30 percent of them spend their earnings by
themselves. The rest, transfer their earnings mainly to their mother and in some cases to
their fathers as well.

Table 2.19 Impact of stopping child labor

Nature of impact Percentage
Household living standard declines 60.0
Household cannot afford to live 12.5
Does not affect anyway 27.5
Total 100.0

Table 2.19 reveals the perception of the household head on child labor. For 60 percent of
the households with child labor, the household living conditions are expected to
deteriorate if children terminate their work. 12.5 percent of the households reported that
they cannot afford to live without the support from their children. Taken these two
together, for 72.5 percent of the households, stopping child labor will have a direct
negative impact on 72.5 percent of the households with child labor. This is a serious issue
that has to be taken into consideration at the policymaking level.
Table 2.20 Father/mother/gardian’s perception on child labor.
Perception Percentage
1 Happy about the child’s work 78.0
2 Not at all happy about the child’s work 17.1
3 No option but to work 4.9
Total 100.0

22
It has been found that a majority of parents are happy about their child work. Only 17
percent of the respondents were unhappy about their child being engaged in
employment activities. A very tiny percentage of respondents expressed that they have
choices other than sending their children to work. Nearly 39 percent of the respondents
believed that the employer treats the child properly. More than half of the respondents
felt that their children were treated moderately.
Main findings of the key informant interviews _ Nuwara Eliya District

Alcoholism is a burning problem in the estate areas. Often the male member of the household, i.e. the
household head is addicted to alcohol. There are cases where both parents are addicted to liquor. When
the father is under the influence of alcohol, he makes quarrels with the mother. The calm family
environment shatters as a result. Often their children are the victims of this process. Sometime the
drunken father beats up the children as well. The fear psyche disturbs the minds of the children and they
lose concentration on studies. Since the plantation houses are built in lines, the children are even disturbed
by problems in the nearby households.

Students report to school without having their breakfast. This leads to loss of concentration and falling
sick during the school hours. Absenteeism and irregular attendance to school are prevalent in the
plantation sector.

The main reason for child labor is poverty. Parents do not have sufficient income to meet expenses on
education though it is given free. Parents give priority to earn money rather than giving children a good
education. The perception of parents is such that sending the child to work is seen as credit (the child
earns money) while sending them to school is seen as debit (the parents have to spend money)!

Almost 90 percent of the parents –particularly the father- do not seem to care about their children’s
education. Neither have they cared for their children’s welfare. All what they need is financial support from
their children to maintain the family.

2.8 Households having child labour

All the households may be grouped as
a). households with child labour in plantation Sector,
b). households with child labour in other sectors and
c). households without child labour

Table 2.21Access to social security programs such as Samurdhi

Receiving benefits (%) Not receiving benefits (%) Total (%)
Households with child (11)100.00 (11)100.00
labor in the fishing
sector
Households with child (2)8.7 (21)91.3 (23)100.00
labor in other sectors
Households without (119)21.0 (447)79.0 (566)100

23
 Receiving benefits (%) Not receiving benefits (%) Total (%)
child labor
Total households with (121)20.2 (479)79.8 (600)100
child labor

Out of 600 households in the sample a little more than 20 percent is receiving social security
benefits. Over 90 percent of the households with child labor are not supported by any sort of
social security from the government. However 21 percent of the households without child
labor are receiving social security indicating that government intervention to increase
household income in the plantation sector can have a positive impact on the problem of child
labor.
This fact can be further supported by the household perception data in Table 2.22 A majority
of 70 percent of households with child labor working in the plantations have expressed that
the current income they receive is sufficient to meet the needs. It should be noted that their
current income is inclusive of the income generated by child labor. The opposite is observed
in the households who send their children to other sectors for employment. Nearly 28
percent of the households felt that their current income is inadequate to meet their
expenses.

Table 2.22 Sufficiency of income and the state of debt burden

Sufficiency of income State of debt of family
sufficient insufficient Suffering from Not suffering
debt from debt
Households with child (7)70.0 (3)30.0 (3)30 (7)70
labor in the plantations
sector
Households with child (5)27.8 (13)72.2 (6)33.3 (12)66.7
labor in other sectors
Households without child (195)38.5 (311)61.5 (228)45.1 (278)54.9
labor
Total households (207)38.8 (327)61.2 (237)44.4 (297)55.6

Nearly 45 percent of the total households surveyed have been suffering from
indebtedness. More than one third of the households with child labor are suffering from
debt burden.

24
Table 2.23 Access to electricity and household quality
Access to electricity Household quality in terms of:
privacy, roof, floor, walls, latrines
Households with Households Poor Fair Good
electricity without
electricity
Households with child (3)30.0 (7)70.0 (8)72.7 (3)27.3
labor in the plantations
sector
Households with child (7)38.9 (11)61.1 18(78.3) 5(21.7)
labor in other sectors
Households without (294)58.2 (211)41.8 (338)59.7 (200)35.3 (28)4.9
child labor
Total households (304)57.0 (229)43.0 (364)60.7 (208)34.7 (28)4.7

For a majority of more than 70 percent of the households surveyed, the quality of the
houses in terms of privacy, quality of roof, floor, walls and availability of latrines has been
poor. Only less than 5 percent households have houses that can be considered as of good
quality. The households with child labor particularly have only poor or fair quality
houses. 30-40 percent of such households have been supplied with electricity. Others do
not have access to electricity. The households without child labor in general have better
access to electricity and quality houses compared to the ones with child labor.

Table 2.24 The level of education of the household head

Child labour Child
in labour in Without
Plantation other child
Sector sectors labour Total
Illiterate 18.2 4.3 9.0 9.0
no formal education, but can read and write 0.0 4.3 3.0 3.0
primary school (class 1 – 5) 72.7 34.8 53.4 53.0
upper primary school (class 6-8) 9.1 34.8 20.5 20.8
lower-secondary school (class 9-10) 0.0 17.4 12.0 12.0
upper-secondary school (class 10 to 13) 0.0 4.3 2.1 2.2
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

The level of education is a contributory factor of child labor. Low level of education of
parents and guardians has a profound impact on child labor. Partly because the parents
do not understand the importance of education nor they consider education as an
investment in building human capital. They think that the children should acquire some
job training at young age if they have to become successful adults. Earning money at
young age is seen as a smart thing to do for a child. This mentality contributes to child

25
labor. It is quite evident that, the level of education of an overwhelming majority of
household heads has been upper secondary school or less. A 91 percent of the household
heads who have sent their children for work within the plantation are schooled up to
class five. And nearly 20 percent of the household heads are illiterate.

2.9 Conclusions
The objective of this study has to been to survey the incidence of child labor in the
plantation sector of Sri Lanka. The study has also attempted to understand the nature of
the child labor problem in the plantations and to identify the causes of the problem,
more specifically to shed some light on the hidden factors that contribute to child labor.

The findings confirm that child labor prevails in the plantations although formally and
legally employing a child is prohibited in Sri Lanka. The informal sector and family
businesses are the main avenue for child labor. Parents make the decisions to send
children to work. And the parents were happy about their decisions as they perceive
work as a training to the child which in turn will improve the employability in the
future. In addition they do not value education much as making money is the priority
over education. This is a clear deviation from the village community in the country. In
poor villages of Sri Lanka, parents work hard to send their children to school and other
higher educational institutes even pawning their valuables, whereas in the plantations,
many parents are sending children to work. This highlights the need for a separate
approach to tackle the problem of child labor in the plantations.

A majority of child workers are employed in the fields or in factories. Poverty seems to be
the major contributor to child labor and once the children are withdrawn from work
these families tends to suffer economically. Poor availability of facilities for higher
education, un-suitable and unpleasant housing condition and its surrounding areas seem
to have a negative psychological impact on children. Alcoholism and related problems,
mothers’ migration to work and the resultant father’s extra marital affairs deter the
children’s education. Also the nature of the work roster of the plantation workers i.e the
parents have to leave to work before the children go to school also plays a significant
part, encourages children to keep away from school.

26
Demonstration impact and money attraction by other children who have already
employed will also have bearing on the children’s mind. This makes the schooling
children stop schooling and seek employment.

Any effort in dealing with child labor in plantations should incorporate mechanisms to
manage with the issues that are identified in this study.

Main Findings of Case Studies_ Plantation Sector

District: Badulla,
Estate: Dyraba Estate
Respondent: Religious Leader

• Alcoholism is a major problem. Illicit liquor trade in estates

• Illegal or extra marital affairs
• Low level of income
• Poverty is a major reason for children stop education
• Children do not have enough support from their families although education is
provided free.
• In some cases the families do not have money to stitch uniforms with free
materials provided by government. Many children go school barefooted.
• Mother has migrated for employment, siblings have employed in city centers, and
father would be working in the estate. In such cases no one will be there to look
after the children at schooling age. Often grandparents look after them or female
children stop schooling to look after their younger siblings.
• The major reason for child work is poverty. Another reason is lack of education of
parents
• Parents do not value education much immediate monetary benefit would be the
immediate concern

District: Badulla,
Estate: Dyraba Estate
Respondent: Estate Leader

• Poverty is major problem

• Workers go to villages for additional work, some engage in cultivation especially
vegetables.

27
 • Housing problem is a burning issue. Several families live in the same house with
one bedroom
• Houses built in lines closely to each other create quarrels with neighbors. Extra
marital affairs are common which makes families – particularly the children - to
suffer
• Alcoholism hampers children’s education as peace. Use of TV and radio also
disturbs children’s concentration and impact negatively on their mind set.
• Parents do no t take sufficient care on their children’s education –partly due to
lack of education. Children those want to study too loose interest because of this
attitude
• Students go to school without having breakfast and find it difficult to maintain
concentration and sometimes faint in the class.
• Only few periods are taught out of eight periods a day due to various reasons
including lack of teaching staff in the estate schools. Students lose interest in
schooling as a result
• There is lack of interaction between teachers and parents. Only few will turn up
when the teachers want to have a discussion.
• Sometimes teachers inquire about parents private matters with their children
which make the children ashamed and stop schooling.
• If proper support is provided children’s schooling can be improved. Parent’s
income should be improved. Parents should be enlighten about the importance
of education

District: Badulla,
Estate: Dyraba Estate
Respondent: Teacher

• Poverty is major problem

• Alcoholism is another problem
• Income is insufficient to meet the expenses
• Poverty lead to fight between father and mother, drunken father beats mother, or
the neighbors fight each other in the vicinity, children psychologically affected
lose concentration in education
• Residential facilities in schools or establishing children homes can be a good idea
to help children continuing with their education
• Absent rates are high in estate schools. Nearly one fourth of the number of total
enrollment is absent daily. Children were used to fetch teach for their parent
work in the estate or to accompany mother to hospitals.

28
 • The major reason for child labor is poverty. Parents find it difficult to feed their
children would consider child labor as a support to beep up family income.
• The society does not have a mechanism to support the children as almost all in
the society are affected by poverty. Although some effort made toward this
direction by school development society, old boys association and temple
development committees, little progress have been made because of parents
attitude: Some parents consider schooling as a debit while child labor as a credit
• 90 percent of parents have no interest at all about their children’s education.
Permission and leave must be obtained from the estate officials if a parent needs
to discuss matters with teachers. Even though the principal has obtain
permission for them they do not turn up for meetings instead they use the leave
to go to outside villages for work
• Employers are aware of the law related to child labor, yet they make use the
opportunities to get child labor for cheap cost. Loopholes on law enforcement
make this possible
• School education should be made more attractive to children, resources should be
improved in estate school.

District: Badulla,
Estate: Dyraba Estate
Respondent: Primary Teacher

• Large amount of money has been spend on alcohol consumption

• Poverty incidence is high
• Line houses create many problems –lack of privacy, drainage problems etc.
• Home environment is not suitable for learning
• Students miss their breakfast hence difficulty in concentration
• Parents do not have sufficient income to meet education expenditures
• Students are attending to school irregularly
• Parents use their children to send tea to family members working in the estate
• Reason for child work is nothing but poverty
• Parents do not worry about their childrens’ education
• They do not encourage children to go to school
• Parent expect financial support from children
• Parents’ consider education as a debit and child labor as a credit to their family
budget
• Social security such as Samurdhi has been available for only a small fraction of the
population and often given to those who are not eligible for such benefit

29
 • When school principal obtain permission for parents to meet the teachers, they
will not turn up for discussion instead they use they leave to work in the nearby
village for money
• Those employ children for work know very well it is illegal. But they do not care,
instead they take the opportunity to hire child labor for cheap wage rates

District: Badulla,
Estate: Dyraba Estate
Respondent: Volunteer Teacher

• The common problem of the society is alcoholism

• Land problem, water problem, sanitation problem exit
• More than one family live in a single household- i.e., line house
• People live in extremely poor economic conditions
• People work in estates, vegetable farms and in villages outside the estate
• Employment opportunities are rare for the educated youth in the estate
• Children do not respect their father simply because he is addicted to alcohol.
Quarrels between father and mother and father and children occurs quite often
• Occurrences of extra marital affairs of both parents often leave childrens’
education and future in jeopardy
• Parent’s give utmost priority to their work. Education for their children may be
among the last items in their priority list.
• Family environment is not conducive to academic activities. Noise, quarrels, and
congestion in line houses lead children to lose concentration on their study
• Children go to work to support the family
• Children stop schooling because do not get necessary guidance and financial
support from their father.
• Very few parents meet the teachers to discuss academic matters of their children

District: Kegalle
Estate: Miyanavita Estate, Deraniyagala
Respondent: Teacher

• Water problem is significant

• Alcoholism is a common nuisance in the evenings. Sometimes females are also
addicted to alcohol
• Alcoholism is the root cause for all other major problems
• Poverty incidence is extremely high

30
 • Lack of income compels them to work in the outside villages for daily wage. A
large proportion of this income is spend on alcohol
• Poverty leads to unrest in families. Quite often they take loans which make
quarrels between husband and wife, the children get caught in the middle of their
parents fight and become the ultimate victims at the end. With broken minded
the children seek employment at the expense of their education
• Addiction to Tele drama serials and radio dramas: children have no time to study
at home. Nor the home environment is suitable for it
• Some children go to bed early as they fear that their fathers will beat them up
under the influence of alcohol when they return home in the evening
• The level of education of parents is very low hence they do not encourage
children to study.
• Poverty, insufficient income and poor living standards together with illiteracy
make families more lethargic towards upward mobility
• Elder brothers and sisters seek employment at the expense of their education to
support their younger siblings
• The demonstration effect of those who already employed has a great impact on
child labor. Once a young lad move to city area for employment he may show his
newly bought cloth, electronic items and other fancy items to those in the similar
age. Psychologically this will make the students to value employment more than
having education.
• Children have to walk long distances to school. There are almost no transport
facilities available to remote part of the estate.
• If alternative income sources available child labor can be stopped. In addition,
school facilities, transport facilities to be improved.

District: Kegalle
Estate: Miyanavita Estate, Deraniyagala
Respondent: Community Leader

• Major problem is alcoholism. Majority of male population is addicted and

significant proportion of females is also addicted
• Shortage of water is another major problem
• Both male and female work in the estate. Some of them go to outside villages for
daily work.
• The level of living standard is extremely poor
• Mother sends children to neighbors when the father returns home in the evening
under the influence of liquor.

31
• There is no school with GCE ordinary level classes in the area. The estate school
has classes up to class 8.
• Transportation is another hurdle that hampers the education activies

32
 Chapter 3
Fire-Works Industry

3.1 Background and scope of the study

This section deals with the child labour in the fire-works industrial sector. Field work
collecting data commenced at the beginning of 2008 and completed within two months. In
general the industry of fire-works was mainly confined to Kandy, Gampaha and Puttalam
districts and data collection for the study was limited to the two districts of Kandy and
Gampaha, which were selected purposively.

The fireworks sector in Sri Lanka is widely known to employ child workers. A Rapid
Assessment (RA) in the fireworks sector in the Western Province was undertaken in 2003.
While the RA revealed the nature of the problems and realities in the fireworks sector in the
Western province, the size of the problem at sub-national level is still unknown.

3.2 Objective of the study

The objective of the survey on the fireworks sector is to estimate through a household based
survey the size of the child workers population directly involved in the production process
in the fireworks. Further, an estimate of the number of children at risk (siblings and other
children in the same household/community not working but at risk of working) would also
be captured. A close attention was paid in the survey of fireworks to capture the peak
season realities of the child workers population.
In addition, the Terms of Reference for the study emphasised the need to assess the
economic and non-economic vulnerability of the households in the identified districts in
order to understand the reasons that compel children to drop out of education after Grades
8-9 instead of completing their O-levels or A-levels, the various forms of child labour that
exists and the community level constraints that these households face.

33
3.3 Methodology
The two Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions of Kimbulapitiya in the Gampaha district and
Halloluwa in the Kandy district have been selected purposively considering the prevalence
of firework industry in the two GN divisions. These locations were selected purposively as
the industry was limited to certain villages and not spread out in all parts of the districts.

Both quantitative and qualitative data relating to the industry have been collected.
Quantitative data were collected through administering a questionnaire to 200 households
(100 from each district). Two- 25-cluster of households were selected from the each GN
division, selecting the sample points at random.

In addition, 10 in-depth interviews (5 from each district) were conducted, selecting

respondents purposively.

Table 3.1 Distribution of the Sample by Districts.

Fire Workers Gampaha Kandy Total
Fire Workers Fire Workers
No. of respondents 100 100 200
No. of in-depth (case) studies 5 5 10

The questionnaire was administered to the main respondents in household (usually the
head of the household). If a case of child labour was found in the household, in depth
interviews were conducted with the main respondent and the working children. In
addition, to household surveys and in-depth interviews, key-informants were also
interviewed.

3.4 Limitations
In order to assess the size of the child labour in the fire-work industrial sector, fire-work
factory approach would have been better. Considering the problems associated with
preparing a sample frame of factories and access to factories to find child labour, which is
legally prohibited, a household approach was adopted.

34
3.5 Household Profile
The number of households enumerated in the selected districts, average household size,
demographic and economic characteristics of the households will be discussed in this
section, as these characteristics are important to understand the child labour problem in
these households. The two villages of Kimbulapitiya in the Gampaha district and
Halloluwa in Kandy district have been selected purposively as majority of the households
in these two villages are involved in fire-work industry. Tables given in the Appendix
relating to fire-work are referred to with a letter A. Thus Table numbers A1 to A12 refers
to household profile. Tables given in the text are numbered serially as Table 3.1, 3.2 etc.

3.6 Profile of Households engaged in Fire-work industry

Household size:
Altogether 197 households have been enumerated in the two districts of Kandy and
Gampaha, where fire-work industry is prevalent, as given in the Table 3.2. Although 100
households have to be enumerated from each location, three households in
Kimbulapitiya, Gampaha district did not respond. On an average there were 4.2
members per household in the two GN divisions. (Table 3.3).
Table 3.2: Number of households and Household members by Location
Halloluwa
Kandy Kimbulapitiya
District Gampaha district Total
No. of Households 100 97 197
No. of Household members 418 409 827
Average HH members 4.2 4.2 4.2

Age and Sex ratio

The sex ratio (number of males per 100 females) given in Table 3.4 indicates that there
were more males than females in both the two locations. As given in Table 3.3 the size of
the child population aged 5-17 years, is higher in Gampaha than in Kandy. The
proportion of male population in this age group was considerably high in both the
districts as the sex ratio was around 134 (number of males per 100 females). There is one
child aged 5-17 years for every five persons in the population in these two villages. It is
also evident that Kandy population is aging than the Gampaha population, probably due
to low fertility that prevailed during the last two decades.

35
Table 3.3:Number of Household Members by Gender and Age
Number Percent
Age group Kandy Gampaha Total Kandy Gampaha Total
0-4 36 33 69 8.5 8.1 8.3
5-17 78 107 185 18.4 26.2 22.2
18-59 261 253 514 61.7 61.9 61.8
60+ 48 16 64 11.3 3.9 7.7
Total 423 409 832 100.0 100.0 100.0

Table 3.4:Household population by district, gender and Sex Ratio

Sex Kandy Gampaha Total
Male 227 208 435
Female 197 201 398
Total 424 409 833
Sex ratio 115 103 109

Civil status (Tables A6 & A7)

The proportion of currently married females was higher than that among males as
proportion of never married males was as high as 51% compared that of 37% among
females. Widowhood was also high among females, as nearly one out 10 females was a
widow. It seems that more males used to postpone their marriages than females, as
shown in Table 3.5 and 3.6.
Table 3.5:Percentage of household members by civil status
Never Currently
married married Separated Divorced Widowed Total
Male 51.4 47.7 0.0 0.2 0.7 100.0
Female 37.2 52.0 1.3 0.3 9.3 100.0

Table 3.6: Percentage of household members by marital status and gender

Age group Never married Currently married
Male Male Female Male Female
0-4 13.0 27.0
5-9 17.5 18.9
10-13 11.7 20.9
14-17 18.4 12.8 0.5
18-24 26.0 12.8 5.8 11.1
25-59 13.0 7.4 79.7 81.2
60+ 0.4 14.5 7.2

36
Age group Never married Currently married
Male Male Female Male Female
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Activity (Table 3.7)

The percentage distribution of household members by age group and activity is given in
Table3. 7. Children in age group 0-4 years attending Montessori schools are reported as
students. It is interesting to note that almost all the children aged 5-13 years were
attending school in these two villages, as primary education is compulsory. Drop out rate
seems to be high among children after age 14 years that is after attending 10 years of
schooling. Once those children aged 14-17 years drop out of school, one out of ten of them
get employed and another one out of ten seek employment, while the balance 8 out of ten
continue schooling.
14% of youths aged 18-24 years continued their educational activities, while one out of
ten of them seek employment. The majority, 66%, had found employments. The
unemployment rate was very low in these villages as majority could find employment.

Table 3.7:Percentage of household members by activity and age

Retired/
Age Household Unable to
group Employed Unemployed Student Work Work Other Total
0-4 0.0 0.0 24.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
5-9 0.0 0.0 98.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
10-13 0.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
14-17 9.8 9.8 78.7 0.0 1.6 0.0 100.0
18-24 66.1 10.7 14.3 7.1 0.0 0.9 100.0
25-59 82.1 0.7 0.5 14.9 0.2 1.5 100.0
60+ 65.6 1.6 0.0 3.1 29.7 0.0 100.0
Total 54.3 2.6 24.8 8.4 2.5 0.8 100.0

Educational attainment
Higher educational attainments were very poor in these two villages, as the school drop
out rate was high and finding employment for dropped out was not difficult. Because of
poverty, lack of motivation and parents’ ignorance the attitude of adolescents was to
earn money. There were only two university graduates in the two villages. 25 of these
villagers were illiterate and all of them were aged 25 years and above, while 11 had no

37
formal education but could read and write. Nearly 90% of the villagers had less than 10
years of schooling.

Occupations
The firework industry was the major industrial sector that provided employment to
these villagers and 51% of those employed were in this sector. Construction and
transport sectors also provided employment to some of these villagers. 48.5% of the
employed population worked in the firework industry as labourers.
This industry was not traditional as only 5% said that it was traditional for them.

Out-Migration
In Sri Lanka migrating out of the country seeking better employment opportunities is
not unusual. In any village there are several households with migrant labour. 26 families
had at least one family member employed out of the country in the Middle East or any
other country. All these migrants migrated out after mid 1970’s , since the country
adopted an open economic policy and promoted out migration, to solve unemployment.

Income and Expenditure

The majority of the working population in these two villages were daily paid (51%) and
weekly paid (11%) labourers. Only 37% was drawing a monthly salary, indicating that
they were in permanent occupations. Most of the workers, 47%, had an individual
monthly income of Rs. 5000-10,000, while another 30% had Rs.10,000 – 20,000. Only 5%
had an income of more than Rs. 20,000 a month. The total household monthly income
was very much similar to the individual income. Anyhow, more than 20% of the
households were having a monthly income of more than Rs.20, 000, compared to 5% of
individuals getting this amount. It can safely be assumed that there could have been
more than one income earner in these families.
Samurdhi is a poverty alleviation programme, which gives an allowance to low income
families. Samurdhi recipients are said to be living below the poverty line. 58% of the
families in these two villages were Samurdhi beneficiaries. According to this survey only
33% of household were having a monthly income below Rs. 5,000. The Samurdhi

38
financial allowance received by many (63%) of the families seemed to less than Rs. 350.
18% received Rs. 350 to Rs. 500. Another 18% received more than Rs. 500.

The majority of the households were of the opinion that their present monthly household
income was sufficient for them. (Table A28).
Indebtedness
It is evident that around 40% of the households was indebted and nearly 80% had taken
loans up to Rs. 10,000. Taking loans for investment among villagers was not so popular
and often they take housing loans.
Use of Electricity, firewood and Gas
Most of these villages were provided with electricity from the main grid and 85% of the
households in these two villages were having electricity. They use electricity mainly for
lighting and not for any industrial purpose. Very rarely a household use electricity and
kerosene oil for cooking. Although gas is popular in urban areas in rural villages around
5% of the households use gas for cooking. Almost all the families (93%) use firewood for
cooking.
3.7 Firework Industry
In the two villages there was a household population of 832, and out of which 450 (54%)
were employed. Out of the 450 employed household members 231 were employed in the
firework industry, which is 51% of the employed population. It is clear that more than
half of the employed population in these two villages depend mainly on firework
industry for a living. It is also clear that a very large proportion, 89%, of these workers in
the firework industry were just labourers drawing an income less than Rs. 5,000 a
month.

Child labour
Out of the 450 employed household members there were 6 children aged 14-17 years
reported as full time employed. Altogether, there were 254 children aged less than 17
years in these households, which is 30.5% of the household population. When children
aged less than 5 year were (69) excluded, the vulnerable child population aged 5-17 years
is 185. Out of these 185 children, 89 were reported as engaged in household work, most of

39
them while going to school. (Table A49). That is nearly one out of two children were
engaged in household work helping parents.

The distribution of children aged 5-17 years by working status is as follows:

Table 3.8: The distribution of children aged 5-17 years by working status
No. of
Status children
Working outside 3
Working in firework (home) 29
Household work 89
Total no. of working children 5-17 yr 121
Non-working children 64
Total no. of children aged 5-17 yr 185

Household work
In the two villages under study there is no serious violation of child’s rights and child
abuse as expected. According to the study there were 185 children in the age group of 5-
17 years (see Table 3.8). Out of them 89 children or 48% help parents by engaging in
household activities, which involved bringing water, cooking, washing cloths, collecting
firewood and looking after sibling (Table A50). Although they were engaged in
household work, except three aged 14-17 years, all the others, that is 97% of the children
of school going age, were attending school. (see Table 3.8). With regard to age
preference, more female children aged 10-13 years and more male children aged 14-17
years tend to attend household work.

Table 3.9
Number and percentage of children engaged in household work by age and Activity
Age group Employed Unemployed Student Not working Total
5-9 17 50 67
10-13 35 22 57
14-17 2 1 34 24 61
Total 2 1 86 96 185
Percent
5-9 0.0 0.0 25.4 74.6 100.0
10-13 0.0 0.0 61.4 38.6 100.0
14-17 3.3 1.6 55.7 39.3 100.0
Total 1.1 0.5 46.5 51.9 100.0

40
Firework
In the field of firework industry child employment had taken a different form. They are
not going to the factory or a fixed place of work, but work at home with parents. It is a
form of cottage industry. The completion of the final product of firework involves several
processes. The activities that are not risky, such as the preparation of rolls (roll
gahanawa) or making cases and closing one end of the roll with mud (metikatta ghanawa),
are done at household level. The risky part of the product, such as filling rolls with gun
powder, is done at the factory level. The factory distributes raw materials to households
and gets the basic work done. The final product is completed at the factory. Once the
household gets the raw material, all the household members, including children, work
together as unpaid family workers. The payment from the factory is collected by the
mother and she gives some money to the children.

There were 29 children aged 5-17 years of age working in the firework industry. Out of 29
children, 24 (83%) were students. It means that they work only part time at home, after
school. Parents allow these children to work because
• The family needs an additional income and
• Children help family business voluntarily, (Table 3.8)

Out of 29 children engaged in fireworks 26 work as unpaid family workers, as this

industry in these villages function as a cottage industry.
Households having child labour
All the households may be grouped as
a). households with child labour in firework industry,
b). households with child labour in other sectors and
c). households without child labour

Out of 197 households, only 192 households had given information relating to the type of
child labour, as shown in Table 3.10. There were 22 households with children engaging in
firework. That is, nearly there was one house per 10 households with children working in

41
firework industry. Households with children working in other economic sectors were
almost negligible as there was only one such household. In these villages, availability of
opportunities to work in other economic sectors was not so high and at the same time,
parents were not ready to send their children out of home to engage in economic
activities without going to school. As such, the number of households without child
labour is high as 88%.
Samurdhi is a government poverty alleviation programme, providing financial assistance
to poor families. Child labour is associated mainly with poverty. In these two villages
59% of the households had received Samurdhi benefits. Out 23 households with child
labour only 11 had received Samurdhi benefits, indicating that these poor families had not
much benefited out of this programme. (Table 3.11).

With regard to indebtedness 40% of all the households were in a state of indebtedness.
Out of those households with child, labour only 43% was indebted. The low level of
indebtedness in these villages was mainly due to low access to sources of credit facilities
provided by banking sector. At the same time, they were not much concerned with
taking loans for investment, except housing loans. They may be indebted to local
shopkeeper and village moneylender.

Table 3.10:Number of households by type of child-labour

No. of
Household status Households %
Child Labour in Firework industry 22 11.5
Child Labour in other sectors 1 0.5
Without child labour 169 88.0
Total 192 100.0

Table 3.11:Number of households by Samurdhi welfare benefits receiving

Samurdhi welfare benefits Percent
Household status Yes No Total Yes No Total
Child Labour in Firework
industry 10 12 22 45.5 54.5 100.0
Child Labour in Other sectors 1 1 100.0 0.0 100.0
Without child labour 102 67 169 60.4 39.6 100.0
Total 113 79 192 58.9 41.1 100.0

42
Place of work and type of work

As given in Table 3.12 it was reported that 32 children were working in the firework
industry and almost all of them, except one child out of 32, were working at home. Only
one was working outside home. They were not working in factories and in hazardous
works.
There were three children who were not going to school and two of them were employed
and one is unemployed.
(With regard to place of work 32 child workers were reported (Table 3.12), while with regard to
employment status of the working children this figure dropped to 29 as three had not responded (Table
3.13).
Table 3.12 Number of Children by Place of work
Age group
Where does the child work? 5-9yr 10-13 yr 14-17yr Total
Home 4 7 20 31
Shops/boutique, 0
Field 1 1
Total 4 7 21 32

Employment status
Employment status of working-children is given in Table 3.13. There was one child who
was self employed and another two were working outside home on casual basis for a pay.
All the other 26 children were engaged in firework at home.

Reason for working

The reasons for working is given in Table 3.14. It is clear that 27 out of 29 worked
voluntarily at home to improve the family income.
Table 3.13
Number of children engaged in household firework by age and employment status
Age group
What is the child's employment status? 5-9 10-13 14-17 Total
Self-employed 1 1
Un-paid family worker 4 6 16 26
Paid employee-casual 2 2
Total 4 6 19 29

43
Table 3.14
Number and percentage of household members (Children) by reason for working and
age
Age group
Main reason for child working 5-9 10-13 14-17 Total
Family need income 3 2 8 13
No opportunity to do a other job 1 1
Children help family business voluntary 1 4 9 14
Family need income and Child has reached
working age 1 1
Total 4 6 19 29
Percent
Family need income 75.0 33.3 42.1 44.8
No opportunity to do a other job 0.0 5.3 3.4
Children help family business voluntary 25.0 66.7 47.4 48.3
Family need income and Child has reached
working age 0.0 5.3 3.4
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Payments and Household income

Children are not paid directly by the factory. The payment for the work is given to the
mother, who takes the responsibility of taking over the raw materials and handing over
the work done. The household income from firework industry is less than Rs. 5,000.
Children are not paid directly by the factory. The payment for the work is given to the
mother, who takes the responsibility of taking over the raw materials and handing over
the work done to the factory. The household income from firework industry is less than
Rs. 5,000.

Monthly total household income from all sources and individual income from firework
industry is given in Table 3.15 and Fig 1, with regard to all households in the villages.
Monthly income from firework refers to individual income and there were more than one
person working in firework industry in a household as there were 237 household
members working in firework industry in 196 households.

It seems that as the household income rises the number of members who were engaged in
firework dropped, indicating that household firework activities were limited to low
income houses, as shown in Table 3.14 and Fig 1. In these households, the proportion of

44
households receiving a monthly income of more than Rs. 10,000 was 71% compared to
15% of individuals receiving more than Rs. 10,000. 85% of the individuals in the firework
industry received less than Rs.10,000. All the children engaged in firework industry were
from low income households, as they received less than Rs. 5,000 per month from
firework. (Table A55).

Table 3.15
Number and percentage of household members by Household total income and income
from fireworks.
Number Percent
Household Income from Household Income from
income firework income firework
Less than Rs. 10,000 56 202 28.6 85.2
Rs.10,000 <20,000 83 20 42.3 8.4
More than Rs.20,000 57 15 29.1 6.3
Total 196 237 100.0 100.0

Fig 1
Household income from all sources and firework industry

Ho useho ld inco me

100

80

60
P ercent
40

20

0
Less than Rs. Rs.10,000 M o re than
10,000 <20,000 Rs.20,000

Ho useho ld inco me 28.6 42.3 29.1

Inco me fro m firewo rk 85.2 8.4 6.3

Number of hours a child works in firework

As almost all the children, who were engaged in firework industry were students
attending school and worked as unpaid family workers in the household, a majority of
the children worked less than an hour a day (Table 3.16). None of the children aged 5-9
years worked more than 10 hours a week. However, more than 47% of the children aged
14-17 years worked more than 10 hours a week.

45
Table 3.16: Percentage of Children by Number of Hours worked per week and age
Age group
Working hours per week on average 5-9 yrs 10-13 yrs 14-17 yrs Total
Percent
1-4 hrs 50.0 66.7 21.1 34.5
5-9 hrs 50.0 0.0 31.6 27.6
10 & more hrs 0.0 33.3 47.4 37.9
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Fig. 2
Number of hours worked per week by children

Working hours per week

80

60

40

20

0
5-9 yrs 10-13 yrs 14-17 yrs
1-4 hrs 50 66.7 21.1
5-9 hrs 50 0 31.6
10 & more hrs 0 33.3 47.4

Impact of child stopping work

Parents were asked about the impact of child stopping work. Only 28% of the
households admitted that it would affect their monthly household income, while a
majority, 65% said that it has no impact. A very small proportion of households were of
the opinion that they could not afford to live if the child stops work. The impact was
high at age 14-17 years of the child, as they worked more than 10 hours a week adding
more income to the family.

Parents did not force children to work, as they worked voluntary. Anyway a majority of
parents, 72%, was happy about their children, who worked for the family. Almost all the
children, 97%, worked at home and only one child aged 14-17 years worked outside home.

46
Work hazard
Unlike in any other industry, the type of work given to children working at home in
firework industry did not expose children to work hazards. Only10 out of 29 responded
to this question and 7 said that they were exposed to chemicals. Three others said that
they experienced dust, bad smell and loneliness. Out of 29 child workers only one was
hurt at the work place. When asked about the health risks at work only 19 out of 29
responded and only two of them admitted that they were exposed to high health risks.
They were asked whether they were tired after a day’s work. Only 22 out of 29
responded and only three admitted that they felt very tired. Others said that they were
not so tired.

Out of 29 children 23 responded to the question on acceptability of work conditions and

the majority 91% said it was acceptable. This was not much relevant to them as their
place of work was at home.

Internal-Migration
Out of 196 households there were only 26 migrant families and out of these 26 only two
had child workers. With regard to reason for migration, marriage and employment were
major reasons. Only one family with working child in firework reported that they
migrated due to insufficient income.

Quality of house
The quality of the house was an indicator of the quality of life. In general one out of three
houses in the villages was said to be poor, while the other two were fair or good. With
regard to household with child labour, only 10 out of 29 responded and three said it was
poor.
Qualitative study
Around 10 in-depth interviews were carried out interviewing subcontractors, teachers,
factory owners, Grama Niladharins (GN= village headman), householders and priests.
Analysis of the qualitative data is presented here.

47
Nature of firework industry:
Firework industry in Sri Lanka commenced just after the Second World War, by a Sri
Lankan soldier, who served in the British Army. When he returned home he brought
some Chinese firework (crackers), and studied the techniques and developed a national
industry with his son. This industry was handed over from father to brothers and sons
and the whole family worked for the industry. The younger generation did not follow
higher education but improved the industry with dedication. At that time there was no
law to control or regularise the industry, but today with the presence of terrorism new
laws have been introduced.

This industry is a traditional one and today no new entrepreneurs join the trade, as it
involves hazards and life risks. Earlier many had died, but today it is controlled. The
nature of the industry needs labourers to sit on the ground and do the job and they
cannot wear clean cloths. Village youth look for alternative jobs in garment factories or
abroad, where they have a better recognition and better job facilities.

There is a severe shortage of labour in this industry, at present. Most of the factory
workers come from far off villages and they are given accommodation and other facilities.
Tamil youth coming from Badulla were turned back due to risks involved with terrorism.
Today work, not involving gun powder, is distributed among village households and the
industry has become a sort of cottage industry. Although the firework industry is highly
profitable, workers are paid poorly. Females in households, with their school going
children helping them after school, are engaged in this industry.

Firework subcontractor:
“I am working as a subcontractor for a firework factory at Kimbulapitiya. I undertake
contract for most of the work relating to crackers, excluding the part of gunpowder,
which is done at the factory. I get this work done through villagers. Children too help
their parents, but I never pay children directly. It is not good to give them money. We
pay elders in the house. During off seasons parents pick cloves and they take their
children to climb trees and pick cloves. They earn Rs.10 per kilogram. Parents earn
around Rs. 800 a day, but they give only Rs. 200 to the wife for household expenditure

48
and spend the balance for alcohol. The women find it hard to manage and engage in
firework industry to feed their children.”

Deputy Principal of the school:

Nearly 90% of the households and 75% of school children in the Kimbulapitiya GN
division are engaged in firework industry. Performances of these children are poor as
they give preference to help parents to earn a few rupees engaging in firework industry.
During festive seasons school attendance is very poor, as children engage in fireworks.
Most of these children spend on eating short eats and other unnecessary things. School
drop out is high as family disruptions are high. Children live with grand parents. Some
children continue somehow or other up to 11th year in school and stop and join garment
industry. Because of poverty some mothers migrate. Some children bring mobile phones
to school and play with it with other children. I took some of these phones and asked
parents to come and collect it, but they never come. There is a severe labour shortage in
this industry. People come from very far off villages to work in firework factories and
they are poorly paid; often Rs. 2500-3000 a month. Children are good, but poverty and
parent’s ignorance are having an adverse impact on their education.
As a result of children being employed in firework industry they are prone to make even
bombs and I have seen them trying. Children are unsafe.”

Traditional
Quantitative data shows that firework industry at household level as a cottage industry
and it is not traditional. The qualitative data indicates that firework industry at factory
level is traditional. All the entrepreneurs interviewed said that they inherit the industry
from their parents.
The owner of one of the large firework factories at Kimbulapitiya:
“Since 1960 the factory is handed down from father to sons, as a heritage. Our
father worked here since he was a child. Our family members too helped him
from their school days. Children of firework entrepreneurs do not continue their
higher education. They leave school after 10 years of schooling and join this
industry. Father usually assigned us some work and we have to complete it.”

49
Poverty:
All those who responded to the interviews pointed out poverty as the major reason for
child labour in these villages. Except firework they have no alterative employment.
Although parents want their children to attend school everyday, because of poverty they
keep quiet if the child stays home and help parents doing firework activities at home.
The Vice Principal in the village school, who has first hand experience in how poverty
affects pupils’ education said:
“Nearly 90% of the pupils in the school come from very poor families. Parents
find it difficult to send their child to school everyday as they have no books,
uniforms etc. Employment in firework industry does not bring a good income,
as they are poorly paid. Because of poverty most of the families get disrupted
and some females migrate out. Children do not get parents affection,
encouragement and leadership to continue their education.”
Another teacher said: “Males have no permanent employment. They are daily
paid labourers, but they cannot find jobs daily. Females tend to work in
firework industry and supplement the family income.”

Alcoholism and poverty:

GN and a firework subcontractor pointed out that males in these villages come home late
after liquor. If they earn Rs. 800 a day, they give only Rs. 200 to wife to run the house.
She manage somehow or other working in firework with children. Firework brings them
an income not more than Rs. 3000 a month.

Child labour
Child labour in these villages could be found mainly in household work and firework
industry.
a). It is customary in villages, mainly children in low income families, to help
parents in their daily household work such as bringing water, collecting
firewood, washing cloths and looking after sibling after school. Some children
help their parents in their economic activities as unpaid family workers.
b). In Kimbulapitiya 90% of the families do various functions relating to
fireworks at home without going to factories. It seems to be a cottage

50
 industry in which all household members, including school going children,
jointly work.
c). Very often subcontractors distribute the raw materials to households in the
morning and collect the completed products at the end of the day. Money is
paid to the mother, often weekly, and she in turn gives some money to
children.
d). During festive seasons employers open up ‘cracker huts’ (r;s[a[d uvq) in
villages and children often find work in these huts during New Year and
Christmas seasons, without attending school. One of the teachers said that
most of the pupils were not attending school during festive seasons as more
than half of the pupils in the school are from families engaged in fireworks
industry. As there is a severe shortage of labour, employers encourage
children to come to huts to work, saying that they will give school books,
cloths and money.

On other days they deliver raw materials to households and children work after school to
support the family. One of the teachers said”
“Child labour is not utilized directly in this industry. Children are not employed
continuously, as they attend school. They stay out of school only during festive seasons,
during which time they can earn a few rupees. Some children drop out after attending 10
years of schooling and find employment in garment industry and earn Rs. 8,000 – 9,000.”

One mother explained how her daughter, who is very keen to continue her higher
studies, voluntarily works in this industry, till late night.
“My eldest daughter, 14 years of age, is very keen to study. Unlike other children she
understands our hardships. She goes to school wearing even old cloths. We have no
electricity. She studies till late night. Now a teacher has started a private tuition class,
charging Rs.1000 a month. She asked me whether she can take more fireworks and work hard
to collect money to pay the tuition class. Employers ask parents to send their children to

51
 “huts”. I am not sending my children; but most parents sending their children, saying that
they can at least buy covers to their books. ”

One important thing to notice in this industry is that all of the children working in
firework industry attend school, sometimes, of course, intermittently.
Impact of Child Labour
According to the respondents, child labour in fireworks industry is having short
term as well as long term impacts on child behaviour. Some of them are:
a). Short term impacts:
• Children attend school intermittently and avoid school during
festive seasons and engage in firework activities to earn a few
rupees.
• The money they earn is spending on short eats and other
unnecessary things, such as mobile phones.
b). Long term impacts:
• Children handling money deviates them from education,
• Intermittent school attendance lead to high school drop out,
• Children’s priority to education is replaced with money and looking
for employment untimely,
• Loosing parental control leads a child to violence and socially
unacceptable behaviour.

Attitude change
A factory owner was of the opinion that the attitudes of the villagers had changed during
the last few decades.
“Now villagers are not willing to work in this field. They are reluctant to
sit on the ground and work. They want clean suits and work in office like
environment. That is why girls prefer garment industry or else they want
us to deliver raw material to their households and attend to work as a
cottage industry.

52
GN of the area said
“Generally all the children attend school. But they go to school unwillingly
and not to learn. Their intention is just to reach 10th year in school and
leave. Thereafter they find employment in garment industry. Parents also
take least interest in teaching their children.

A Buddhist priest:
“Parents must change their attitudes and encourage their children to
continue their higher studies. Now their intention is just to eat and drink
and spend the day. They can do nothing with the little money that they
earn. Some parents want their daughters to marry early. In this village it is
a customary that after marriage husband stays in the wife’s house.”

3.8 Conclusion
Today, Sri Lanka, in the process of globalization and industrialization, is rapidly
transforming into a consumer society. People say that ‘everything is getting
commercialized’ and every one is running after money. This attitudinal change is
attributed to the open economic policy introduced in 1977. The open economic policy
was introduced with the intention of solving the grave problem of unemployment among
educated youth promoting tourism, out-migration, foreign capital and free flow technical
know-how into the country. It brought in advantages as well as disadvantages. With the
promotion of tourism, commercialism, modern electronic communication (porno DVD,
video, computer, internet cafes) and mother migration, many forms of child abuses have
been introduced. Child sex trade, child trafficking, child labour, children serving as
domestic aids, domestic work, cruelty and sexual abuse by relatives or neighbours in the
absence of mother’s protection (mainly mother migration) and lack of parental affection
are some of the problems that Sri Lankan children face today.

This study has been limited to child labour in firework industry. Firework industry is
confined only to certain areas in the country. Both quantitative and qualitative data have
been collected through a purposively selected sample of 197 households in two GN
divisions of Kimbulapitiya in Gampaha district and Halloluwa in Kandy district, where

53
firework industry is mainly located. In these two villages 185 children aged 5-17 years
were enumerated. Out of these children 89 help parents in their household work, such as
bringing water, cooking, washing cloths, collecting firewood and looking after sibling.
Though they attend to day to day work in the household, helping parents, they attend
school. Another 29 children in this age group help parents attending activities relating to
firework, while attending school.

During festive seasons children continuously work in firework without going to school.
Other days they attend school intermittently, as they give priority to help parents in
their economic activity. Labourers in firework industry are poorly paid and parents earn
less than Rs. 5,000 a month from firework.

Child labour in firework industry is limited to certain locations in three districts of

Kandy, Gampaha and Puttalam in the country. There was no evidence of children going
to a firework factory and work, but they worked at home as unpaid family workers.
Activities in a firework factory are hazardous and risky not only for children but also for
adults. Working with gun powder requires experience and skill. Therefore none of the
children are given that type of work. Only those activities which do not involve
gunpowder are given to households. The factory distributes raw materials, such as
preparing rolls and sealing with mud, which are not risky mainly among females in the
households closer to the factory. All the members in the household, including children
work voluntarily, like in a cottage industry. Once their part of the work is completed
they hand it over to the factory and collects the payment. Mother who take the
responsibility collects the payment and pay household members.

The nature of firework industry had changed considerable during the last two decades.
Earlier, employees went to the factory and worked seated on the ground. This industry
involves a risk in life, as few died of accidental explosions. At present youth are not
willing to sit on the ground and work, as they prefer to work in clean environment
wearing clean and smart looking cloths. Now there is a severe shortage of labour in this
industry and employers tended to distribute raw material to neighbouring households in
the morning and collect the products in the afternoon. Members of the household,

54
including children work together. Payments are made to the mother. Activities relating
to gunpowder are not given to children or households, as that part of the job is done at
the factory level by experienced hands. In an indirect way, child labour in firework
industry is promoted as substitute, to face labour shortage.

Children who work in the firework industry in households attend school and spend less
than 10 hours a week. Qualitative data indicated that there was a labour shortage in the
firework industry and employers promote household members and children through
paying them in time. The income an individual gets from firework industry is less than
Rs. 5,000, which is not a significant income. Even if a child stops working parents said
that it has no significant impact on their family income; but children aged 14-17 years
stops working, it has a significant impact on the family income, as they worked more
than 10 hours a week.

Another feature in this industry is that there are no new comers to the industry, as it
involves hazards and restricting laws due to security reasons. Shortage of labour is also
another factor that contributes to this, due to attitudinal changes in the younger
generation.

The nature of child labour in firework industry is not similar to that found in other
industries. Firework industry in these villages has become a sort of cottage industry.
Children are not directly involved, as they are not going out of the house to work in a
central place, except during the festive seasons. It should be noted that all these children
are students attending school. During festive seasons, employers put up huts, called
‘cracker huts’ (r;s[a[d uvq ) and they promote children to come to these places for work
promising them money, school books and school uniforms. During festive seasons of
New Year and Christmas, rate of school attendance drops drastically. Other days they
work one to two hours a day as unpaid family workers.

The firework industry at cottage level is having short term as well as long term impacts
on children. The involvement of child in firework directly affects child’s quality of
education, as they go to school intermittently and do not play an active role in education.

55
Although parents want their children to attend school their poverty and ignorance do
not allow it.

With regard to long term impacts, once these children are exposed to earning money and
using them at an early stage of their life, they give priority to working for a pay rather
than going to school, changing their attitudes. After 10 years of schooling majority of
these children stop schooling and join the labour force and work in the firework
industry. Parents tolerate this type of children’s attitudes due to poverty and economic
constraints on family.

The quality of education at school level too dropped. Once the children as well as the
parents do not take any interest the teachers too keep quiet and show a negative attitude
towards these children. There are children who are highly interested in education in
these villages. They are coming from migrant families with a satisfactory income level.
Parents send these children to higher schools out of the village.

All those children of school going age were attending school up to age 13 years and
thereafter children tend to drop out and at the time of the survey only 79% of the
children in 14-17 year age group were attending school. Those who left school in this age
group were employed or looking for employment. After 10 years of schooling majority of
the children tend to drop out. A very few students in these villages continue their higher
education up to GCE A/L or university level.

Parents are poor and ignorant and have no idea about the quality of their children. In
these two villages educational level of villagers was very low, as 90% of them had only
less than 10 years of schooling. 11 of the villagers had no formal education and were
illiterate. Because of parent’s low level of education and poverty, parents were in favour
of children contributing to family income, rather than continuously attending school,
which they cannot afford. Primary education is given to every child, but the quality is
very low as teachers, parents and children do not take active interest in education.

56
In locations where firework industry thrives, a considerable proportion of children of
school going age is engaged in firework industry as unpaid family workers. Due to
poverty and ignorance parents tolerate and appreciate children’s contribution to family
income, though it affects the children’s education and quality of life.

57
 Chapter 4: Tile Industry
4.1 Background and Scope of Study
Tile industry in Sri Lanka is spread out in several districts in the Western and North
Western provinces. This survey studies the industry in Vaikkal GN division in Puttalam
district in the North Western Province and Katana GN division in Gampaha district in
the Western Province. It is assumed that many children are employed in the tile
industry, at factory level, as it is not a cottage industry and as families with children were
given residence within the factory premises. The type of child labour, their family
background, reasons for children to be employed, its implication on child’s education etc.
are studied here. All the Tables are given in the Appendix and numbered with a letter T.

4.2 Objective
The objective of the study was to estimate the size of the child labour, directly as well as
indirectly, involved in tile industry and study the risks and hazards that working
children face in this industry.

4.3 Methodology
For the study of child labour in the two villages selected, 400 households were
enumerated, 200 from each village. The selection of the villages as well as the houses
were done purposively. A list of tile factories or a list of households with child labour in
the tile industry was not available and to prepare such lists might take a considerable
time and money.

Table 4.1 Sample Size

Tile Workers Gampaha Puttalam Total
Katana Vaikkal
No. of respondents 200 200 400
No. of in-depth (case) studies 5 5 10

58
4.4 Limitations
The best approach to study child labour in tile industry was through factories, as
children should go to the factory to work. However, it was not possible as factory
owners do not allow researchers to enter their premises as employing children is
prohibited. Therefore, a household approach was adopted.

4.5 Child Labour in Tile Industry: key findings

Demographic, social and economic characteristics of the household population will be
discussed in this section, as a guide to understand the child labour problem in these
households.
Household size
The two districts of Gampaha and Puttalam have been selected purposively for the
study, considering the prevalence of tile industry. Altogether 400 households were
enumerated with a population of 1446, amounting to 3.6 members per household. It is
also clear that 93% of the population belonged to nuclear families consisting of parents
and children. (Table T1). The dependency ratio was around 56%.
Age and Sex ratio
The sex ratio (number of males per 100 females) given in Table 4.2 indicates that there
were more males than females in age groups of 10-24 years and the sex ratio was highly in
favour of males in 15-17 years age group.
It is also clear that, as given in Table 4.3, the size of the child population aged 5-17 years,
which is vulnerable to abuse and child labour, is 23% of the total population. The
proportion of male population in this age group was considerably high in age group of
10-17 years. There is more than one child aged 5-17 years for every five persons in these
villages.

Table 4.2
Number and Percentage of Household Members by Age, Gender and Sex ratio.
Sex Percent
Age group Male Female Total Male Female Total Sex ratio
0-4 yrs 53 54 107 7.2 7.6 7.4 98
5-9 yrs 55 57 112 7.5 8 7.8 96
10-14 yrs 71 62 133 9.7 8.7 9.2 115

59
 Sex Percent
Age group Male Female Total Male Female Total Sex ratio
15-17 yrs 56 32 88 7.6 4.5 6.1 175
18-24 yrs 107 102 209 14.6 14.3 14.5 105
25-59 yrs 358 360 718 48.8 50.6 49.7 99
60& above 33 44 77 4.5 6.2 5.3 75
Total 733 711 1444 100 100 100 103

Table 4.3
Number and Percentage of Household Members by Gender and Age
Age Male Female Total Male Female Total
0-4 yrs 53 54 107 7.3 7.7 7.4
5-17 yr 182 151 333 24.8 21.2 23.1
18-59 yr 465 462 927 63.4 64.9 64.2
60& above 33 44 77 4.5 6.2 5.3
Total 733 711 1444 100 100 100
In this population there were 333 children aged 5-17 years, and 55% of them were
males and 45% were females, as given in Table 4.4 below. (see also Table T1 in
appendix).
Table 4.4
Number of children by age and gender
Male Female Total %
5-9 yrs 55 57 112 33.6
10-14 yrs 71 62 133 39.9
15-17 yrs 56 32 88 26.4
Total 182 151 333 100.0
% 54.7 45.3 100.0

Civil status
Civil status of the household population is given in Table 4.5, below. Frequency of
marriage increased after age 25 years and widowhood was higher than separation and
divorce cases. There were some teenage marriages, mainly among girls, as there were 17
girls and 3 boys, who had married at the age of 17-20 years.
Table 4.5
Percentage of Household members by Civil Status
Age group
Marital Statues 10-14 15-17 18-24 25-59 60 &
0-4 yrs 5-9 yrs yrs yrs yrs yrs above Total
Never married 107 112 133 86 141 85 6 670
Currently married 2 66 549 40 657

60
 Age group
Marital Statues 10-14 15-17 18-24 25-59 60 &
0-4 yrs 5-9 yrs yrs yrs yrs yrs above Total
Separated 2 36 2 40
Divorced 6 1 7
Widowed 43 29 72
Total 107 112 133 88 209 719 78 1446
Percent
Never married 100.0 100.0 100.0 97.7 67.5 11.8 7.7 46.3
Currently married 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.3 31.6 76.4 51.3 45.4
Separated 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 5.0 2.6 2.8
Divorced 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.8 1.3 0.5
Widowed 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.0 37.2 5.0
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Birth certificate:
Only 5% of the household members had no birth certificate and majority of them
were adults. Largest proportion of those who had no birth certificates, nearly 7%,
were reported in age groups of 0-4 years and 25-59 years. On other hand out of
school-going-age-population of 326 in 5-17 years, only 7 children or 2% had no birth
certificate. Birth certificate is one of the key documents that is required to admit a
child to a school, in Sri Lanka. Therefore almost all the children of school going age
had their birth certificates, as parents insist that their children should attend
school.
Activity
59% of the household population was employed and only 3% were unemployed. 19%
were students, 7% were engaged in household work.

Activity of children
As given in Table 4.6, below, there were 333 children aged 5-17 years and out of them
only 83% were attending school. Others had joined the labour force, either employed or
looking for a job or engaged in household work. 29 of them were directly reported as
employed and another 7 were seeking employment. That is 11% of the children aged 5-17
years were employed.

Out of the 29 non-school going children 25 gave reasons for not attending school. 8
children (32%) were not willing to go to school, while 5 (20%) were not attending

61
school as parents found it difficult to afford. Only 2 aged 15-17 years stayed at home as
they failed in the examination, probably GCE O/L. Others did not give a specific reason.
Table 4.6
Number of children by age and activity

Main activity 5-9 yrs 10-14 yrs 15-17 yrs Total %

Employed 6 23 29 8.7
Unemployed 1 6 7 2.1
Student 101 121 55 277 83.2
Household Work 1 2 3 6 1.8
Other 10 3 1 14 4.2
Total 112 133 88 333 100.0

Education attainments
With regard to the educational attainments of the household population nearly 8% of
those aged 10 years and above were illiterate and illiteracy was high among adults aged
25 years and above. Over half of the household members aged 25 years and above had
only primary education. The proportion of those who had higher educational
attainments among this population was very low. In the adult age groups of 18 years and
above only 2% to 11 % had more than 10 years of schooling while all the others (over
90%) had less than 10 years of schooling indicating that the educational level of the
household population as very low.

Occupation
As majority had a low level of educational attainments, economically active population
found employment mainly in tile industry and other manual works. Over 58% of the
household population was engaged in some economic activity. The majority of them
(69%) were engaged in the tile industry. As shown above 29 children had dropped out of
school and were engaged in some economic activity and only 9 children were in the tile
industry. It is also clear that majority of the adults aged above age 18 years had entered
the labour force by age 15 years. A very of these employments were engaged in family
enterprises and majority of those who were employed elsewhere had verbal contracts
with their employers, as they worked in informal sectors in the village.

62
Almost all of them reported that they received their payments in time. Saving among
them (only one out of four saved some money) was very poor as their pay was hardly
enough to support them.

Because of low education, due to early dropping out from school, the older generation
tended to start working at their early stage, majority at the age of 10 to 15 years. Unlike
firework and coir industries, tile industry is not a cottage industry. Therefore, tile
industry is not often a family business. As these people were labourers and were daily
paid, they were not in the habit of saving in savings banks. Only one out of four saved
some money, mostly in banks.

With regard to economic and other benefits that employees received, a significant
proportion of employees (42%) had received accommodation and 10% said that received
meals also. 33% did not receive any benefits other than the pay.

Migration
When there is no employment in the village to their satisfaction, villagers tended to
migrate out, sometimes they go abroad looking for better job opportunities. In these
villages very few only 6% of the family members had migrated out and 65% out of
migrants went out in search of employment opportunities. In addition 17% had migrated
for higher educational purposes. It is interesting to note that out of 77 family members
who migrated out 25 were children in the age group of 5-17 years. Out of these 25, only 3
had gone finding jobs in construction and garment industry and they were aged 10 years
and above.

Individual and Household Income

As majority of these workers were daily paid labourers, 58% received less than Rs. 5000
per month, 31% received Rs. 10,000 or more. More than half of the tile workers received
less than Rs. 5,000 per month, while one out of four in the tile industry had received
more than Rs. 10,000 per month.
In general the majority 65% of the households were of the opinion that their income was
sufficient for them.

63
Indebtedness
Nearly one out of three households were in a state of indebtedness. Indebtedness was
high among households with a monthly income of less than Rs. 10,000. They were
indebted mainly for consumption purposes and not for investment.
With regard to the quality of houses, more than 70% of the houses were ranked as low.
29% as medium. Less than 1% had high quality houses. Although the quality of the house
was low 91 % had electricity and only 35% had received Samurdhi.

Working Children
Out of 333 children 29 were engaged in some economic activity and 9 of them were in tile
industry. 155 of them were doing household work, such as brining water, collecting
firewood, going to the boutique and assisting mother in her household chores.

Place of work
Majority of the working children,13 children, said that they were working in factories,
while 8 were working in the field. 3 were working in the employer’s household.

Table 4.7
Number of children by Place of work
Place of work 5-9 yrs 10-14 yrs 15-17 yrs Total
Factory 4 9 13
Shops/boutique, 2 3 5
Field 1 7 8
Employer's House, 1 1 1 3
Others 2 2
Total 1 8 22 31

Household work and children

Out of 333 children, 155 children or 46% aged 5-17 years said that they were doing some
household work while attending school.

More than half of the children aged 10-17 years were engaged in household work, while
most of the children aged 5-9 years did not work, probably as they were too young.

64
There was no significant child sex preference in household work. Both girls as well as
boys were engaged in bringing water, cooking and washing cloths, though there were
more girls than boys involved in this type of work. More boys than girls were engaged in
going to boutiques. It is clear that irrespective sex both girls as well as boys were helping
their parents in household chores.

Table 4.8
Number of Children in household work by Sex and type of work

Number Percent
Type of work Male Female Total Male Female Total
Bringing water 10 18 28 14.9 20.5 18.1
Collecting firewood 2 2 4 3.0 2.3 2.6
Cooking 14 33 47 20.9 37.5 30.3
Washing clothes 10 9 19 14.9 10.2 12.3
Child care 1 4 5 1.5 4.5 3.2
Go to the boutique 12 13 25 17.9 14.8 16.1
Cleaning house 17 8 25 25.4 9.1 16.1
Assisting for family economic
Activity 1 1 2 1.5 1.1 1.3
Total 67 88 155 100.0 100.0 100.0

Child Employment, income and hours worked

Out of 333 children, only 31 or 9% were engaged in paid employments. Out of these
employed children 26 were boys and 5 were girls. All the 5 girls were aged 15-17 years. It
should be noted that no girl aged less than 15 years was employed. Majority of these
children had worked more than 35 hours a week. Girls in the garment industry had
worked more than 40 hours a week.

The majority of the children, who worked collected their payment and a very few
mothers intervened to collect child’s payment. Most of the children who collected their
salary tend to spend by themselves. Although mothers were not interested in collecting
their children’s payment, more mothers tend to interfere in spending them.

Unlike in the case of firework and coir industry, in the tile industry children had to work
out side home. 13 children worked in factories and 8 in the field. Five worked in
boutiques. Three worked in employer’s house as domestic workers.

65
Out of 31 children worked outside home 28 children reported the amount of payment
they received from their employment, as given below:
It is clear that majority of the children had received an income of less than Rs. 10,000 per
month.
Table 4.9
Average monthly income
Income 10-14 yr 15-17 yr
Less than RS. 5000 0 9
5000-<10,000 6 11
10,000 + 0 2
Total 6 22

Reason for Child Employment

Parents were asked about the reason for sending their children to work for a pay. The
majority, 17 out of 31 said that they could not afford to send them to school and they had
dropped out of school. After dropping out there was no alternative other than working
for pay, supporting their family income. Another 8 said because of poverty they wanted
their children to work as family needed money.

Parents were also asked about the impact on the family if the child stops working. The
majority, more than three out of four parents, said that if the child stops working it
would directly affects their family and standard of their living would decline. Only 3 said
that it would not affect their family.

It was also asked about the person who had asked the child to work. 22 out of 31
children, that is 71%, said that the child had decided him/herself. There were six
instances where the mothers had asked the children to work considering their family
income and the child’s dropping out of school. Most probably if the child is not willing to
go to school, mothers might have preferred them to work for a payment considering their
poverty, rather than idling and roaming in the village.

Hazards in employment

66
Children pointed out some of the common hazards that they had to face in working.
Very often they had to work long hours and had no adequate sleep, which is essential for
their growth as a child. Some said that they had to carry heavy things. At the same time
they felt loneliness and had faced risks in the work environment. Seven children
complained about injuries they received while working. Often they experienced
breathing problems, fatigue, headache and body pain.

None of the working children complained about ill-treatment by employers. Children

said that employers’ treatments were good or moderate. Only one child said he was paid
a higher salary and others said that their salary was moderate or low. It seems that
majority of the children were not paid properly.

Majority of the children, 23 out of 31, said that the working environment was acceptable
and eight said it was not good.

Parents attitude towards child labour

Parents approved children working for a payment, considering their inability to afford
child’s education and low income of the household. If the child is not going to school
they had no alternative, other than asking them to find employment. However, only five
out of 31 households having child workers were not happy about the child engaging in
paid employment. All the others, the majority, were happy about children getting
employed.

Households with working children

Households may be grouped as households with working children in tile industry,
households with working children in other sectors and, households without working
children, as given in Table 4.10. Only 3% of the households had children working in tile
industry, while 4% of the households had children working in other sectors. A majority
of the households, 93% had no child labour.

67
Table 4.10
Number of household by status of child labour
Status Total %
Child labour in Title industry 11 2.8
Child labour in other sector 17 4.3
No child labour 368 92.9
Total 396 100.0

Then ownership of land indicates that majority of the households in the tile industry had
no land of their own (Table 4.11) and they were occupying the land and houses provided
by the factory. Landlessness seemed to a common factor in these villages as 63% of the
households had no land of their own. Art the same time none of the households with
children working in tile industry had good or fair houses, as all of their houses were
ranked as low.

Table 4.11
Number of household by status of child labour and ownership of land
Less More
than 2 2-3 than
No land acres acres 3ac. Total
Child labour in Title industry 9 1 1 11
Child labour in other sector 11 6 17
No child labour 227 113 16 10 366
Total 247 120 17 10 394

Child labour in Title industry 81.8 9.1 9.1 0.0 100.0

Child labour in other sector 64.7 35.3 0.0 0.0 100.0
No child labour 62.0 30.9 4.4 2.7 100.0
Total 62.7 30.5 4.3 2.5 100.0

Qualitative data
Several in-depth interviews were also carried out in these areas interviewing key
informants. According to the qualitative data very few villagers work in tile factories as
they think the prestige attached to tile industry is very low and mean. The villagers
though poor try to keep their family status and preferred to work out side tile factories.
As a result there is a labour shortage in the tile industry and the factory owners promote
migrant labour from out side the village. Unemployed, low educated and unmarried
labourers from adjoining districts like Kurunegala, Kegalle migrate to Puttalam and

68
Gampaha districts looking for employment in tile industry, as the factory owners provide
accommodation in line-rooms. Most of these labourers marry female labourers working
in the factory and occupy a line-room. Their children too live in the same room. Very
often there is free sex life within the factory premises and the owners of the factory too
encourage this type of behaviour to keep the labourers in the factory without moving
away to another factory. They are paid better as there is a labour shortage.

Most of the children are exposed to adults’ private lives, as all of them occupy the same
room. The GN of the area pointed out that even the language that these children speak is
vulgar and filth.

“ None of these parents want to send their children to school. They earn money,
eat and drink. Males are used to alcohol. Some males keep two or three females.
As they have poor accommodation, they sleep together and children are exposed
to adults’ sex life. These children speak filth. Work in the factory. With the help
of the DS office, we could send some of these children to school, giving them
books and other school materials. I know one girl, who received our assistance,
ran away with a boy working in the factory at the age of 14 and now work in
another factory. Recently a boy in the eighth year in school raped a Montessori
girl.” GN –Waikkal N.

A Development Officer told us that

“Majority of these children have no birth certificates, as their parents were not
legally married. Most of these labourers are Tamil migrants from plantation
districts and even have no national identity card. If they earn Rs.300 a day they
spend half of this for illicit liquor and smoke. Children’s behaviour is very bad.
They speak filth even in school. At home they are subjected to sexual abuse,
homosexual. They occupy a single room and children watch adults’ sexual
behaviour and they try these things with their friends. These children have no
books, bags, cloths or shoes to go to school. The white gown (school uniform)
has turned yellow. Their life is really miserable”.

69
Child labour in these villages needs to be addressed immediately and it should be a
realistic approach. The only way that this could be eliminated is through ameliorating
the living conditions of the poor, providing them with better pay for the work they do.
Eliminating child labour is associated with eliminating poverty.

a. Discussion and conclusion

In order to study the child employment in the tile industry, it was decided to select
villages which have a large proportion of households engaging in the tile industry. This
survey studies the pattern of child employment in tile industry and it cannot estimate
the size of child-workers in tile industry in the island as a whole.

This survey studied 400 households with a population of 1446 in two villages in
Gampaha and Puttalam districts, where most of the villagers worked in the tile industry.
69% of the village work force found employment in the tile industry in the selected
villages. Educational attainment and unemployment were very low. Majority were daily
or weekly paid labourers. Majority of the households were poor as 69% of the
households received a monthly income of less than Rs.10,000 and the quality of 70% of
the houses were rated as low.

With regard to ethnicity and religion 91% were Sinhalese, 8% were Tamils and others
were Moors. Out of the Sinhalese 69% were Sinhala Buddhists and another 30% of the
Sinhalese was Roman Catholics.

There were 333 children and nearly half of them were engaged in household work
attending to household chores, helping the mother. These children attended school while
doing household work, like cooking, washing, cleaning, looking after siblings and going
to boutique. Only 31 of the children aged 5-17 years were engaged in paid labour out side
home.

Most of these children over worked and faced many hazards. They also had health
problems and were paid very low. Parents allowed them to work because they dropped

70
out of school as the parents could not afford to send them to school. Once they dropped
out, parents were of the opinion that they had no alternative other than sending them for
work and support the family.

71
 Chapter 5: Coir Industry

5.1 Background and scope of the study

In Sri Lanka, although coconut cultivation is mainly confined to the coastal belt, coir
industry thrives in Kalutara, Galle and Matara districts in the South-West wet zone
coastal belt. For this study, districts of Galle and Matara have been selected purposively,
considering the prevalence of this industry.

Coir factories in the Southern province have been registered with the Southern Province
Coconut Development Board (SPCDB). However, a list of households engaged in coir
industry is not available. Therefore, four coir factories for each district were selected
randomly from the list of factories provided by SPCDB. Finally, 50 households engaged in
coir industry adjoining the factory were selected in consultation with the factory. Thus
200 households were enumerated from each district.

Quantitative as well as qualitative data have been collected and Tables relating to
quantitative data are given in the appendix and numbered with letter C.

5.2 Objective of the survey

The objective of this survey is to study the pattern of child labour in coir industry in
selected districts. As this industry is mainly a cottage industry, its impact on household
income, education of children and attitudes of parents will be studies.

5.3. Methodology
As there is no sample frame of coir factories or household engaged in coir industry,
readily available two villages were selected purposively and households were selected
with the assistance of the officers involved, in the Southern Province. A questionnaire
was administered to the 400 selected households and ten in-depth studies were also
carried out.

72
Unlike in the other two studies, the sample of households in coir industry is distributed
in several DS divisions.
The distribution of the sample is given in Table 5.1 below.

Table 5.1
Number of household members by Districts and Divisional Secretariat Divisions (DS)
District
Name of the DS Division Galle Matara Total
Hikkaduwa 449 449
Habaraduwa 401 401
Akmeemana 66 66
Waligama 684 684
Devinuwara 200 200
Total 916 884 1800

5.4 Profile of households engaged in coir industry. (Table C1-C9 and

C29-C34)

Altogether 400 households were interviewed in the two districts of Galle and Matara,
200 from each district. In these 400 households there were 1800 household members and
86% of the household members belonged to nuclear families consisting of husband, wife
and children. (Table C4 & 2)

The average size of a family was around 4.5 family members, with a dependency
ratio of 45.41.
Table 5.2
Number of household members by Relationship to Head of Household
Relationship with Household Head Total %
Head of the Household 396 22.0
Wife/Husband 328 18.2
son/daughter 833 46.3
Parents 33 1.8
Other relatives 183 10.2
Other 27 1.5
Total 1800 100.0

1
Dependency ratio = 0-14 yr population + 65yr and above to 15-64 yr. population

73
Age and sex ratio:
The age structure of the population indicates that the village population engaged in coir
industry is an aging population, with a low fertility (0-4 yrs population being 6.6 %
compared to 10% of 60 years and above) and a higher population living beyond age 60
years. Years of low fertility had reduced the dependency ratio to 45.

Sex ratio, that is number of males per 100 females, was in favour of males in the ages 5-24
years, as there were 118 to125 males per 100 females. (Table 5.3 and 5.4) It is not known
why the number of male children are much higher than the number of female children in
corresponding age groups. On the other hand the number of males was much less than
the number of females in the adult age groups of age 25 years and above.
Child population:
The vulnerable child population aged 5-17 years consisted of 435 children or 24% of the
household population (Table 5.3 and 5.4 below).
Table 5.3
Sex ratio of household population by age
Age group sex ratio
0-4 yrs 98
5-9 yrs 125
10-14 yrs 123
15-17 yrs 122
18-24 yrs 118
25-59 yrs 86
60 yrs & above 86
Total 99

Table 5.4
Number and percentage of children aged 5-17 years by age and sex ratio
Age Male Female Total Sex ratio
5-9 yrs 75 60 135 125
10-14 yrs 98 80 178 123
15-17 yrs 67 55 122 122
Total 240 195 435 123

Civil status of the household population

The civil status of the population indicates that there were some teenage marriages
among female children, as shown in Table 5, below. A few male children got married at

74
the age of 15-17 years, but separated at the time of the survey. Widowhood among
females was high at adult ages and family disruptions were not so high.

Table 5.5
Percentage of household members by Age and Civil Status
Male Marital Statues
Never Currently
Age group married married Separated Divorced Widowed Total
0-4 yrs 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
5-9 yrs 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
10-14 yrs 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
15-17 yrs 98.5 0.0 1.5 0.0 0.0 100.0
18-24 yrs 83.5 16.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
25-59 yrs 17.1 82.1 0.8 0.0 0.0 100.0
60 yrs & above 2.4 90.4 0.0 0.0 7.2 100.0
Total 53.6 45.3 0.4 0.0 0.7 100.0
Female
0-4 yrs 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
5-9 yrs 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
10-14 yrs 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
15-17 yrs 96.4 3.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
18-24 yrs 66.1 33.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
25-59 yrs 16.1 71.9 2.3 1.4 8.3 100.0
60 yrs & above 2.1 50.0 0.0 0.0 47.9 100.0
Total 44.6 44.5 1.1 0.7 9.1 100.0

Birth Certificate
Birth certificate is a very important document at the time of getting children admitted to
a government school. In these households all the children below age 15 years had their
birth certificate, but 2 children aged 15-17 years said that they had no birth certificate.
Nearly 8% of the household members had no birth certificate at higher age group of 60
years and above.
Educational status and Schooling
Schooling commences at age five years in Sri Lanka. It is compulsory that parents must
send their children to school at the age of five and as a result school attendance in the
primary classes seems to be very high. Up to age 9 the rate of school attendance was high
(92%) in these two villages. Drop out rate seemed to increase gradually after age 10 years
or after completing primary education, as the children are not been motivated to
continue their education.

75
Activity
With regard to activity of the population in these villages, over 90% of those aged 25-59
years were employed, while unemployment was high (27%) among the youth aged 18-24
years, as employment opportunities are low in the village. Over 90% of the child
population of school going age of 5-14 years were students attending school and nearly
5% of the school going age children of 10-14 years had joined the labour force, dropping
out of school.
Educational attainments
As all parents are forced to send their children to school at least to get primary
education, illiteracy was very low among the children and youth aged less than 24 years.
However, illiteracy was high among the older generation. 3.5% and 14% were illiterate in
the age groups of 25-59 and 60years and above, respectively. Nearly 3% of older people,
who were literate, had no formal education. More than half of the population aged 25-59
and 60 years and above had only less than 10 years of schooling.
Occupation
It was found that 55% of the household population aged 10 years and above was engaged
in some economic activity. At age 25-59 years over 90% of the household members were
employed.
Table 5.6
Percentage of household members by Age and Engaging in Economic Activity
Do you engage
in an economic 18-24 25-59 60 yrs &
activity? 0-4 yrs 5-9 yrs 10-14 yrs 15-17 yrs yrs yrs above Total
Yes 0.0 0.0 1.1 9.0 52.5 90.6 62.0 55.2
No 100.0 100.0 98.9 91.0 47.5 9.4 38.0 44.8
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Household income
The majority of the households (47%) received a monthly income of Rs. 10,000 – 20,000,
while 33% had an income less than Rs.10,000 (Table C 9). Nearly one out of five families
had a monthly income of over Rs. 20,000. In general income level of a majority of the
households (67) these households was somewhat satisfactory, as four out of five families
received more than Rs. 10,000 a month. This is true with regard to the quality of their
houses, as quality of majority of the houses was reported as medium. Only 10% of the

76
houses were rated as of low quality. (Table C 35). On the other hand 53% of the families
accepted that their income was sufficient for them.
Indebtedness
In general middle class families tend to take loans, mainly for construction purposes, to
build their houses, rather than the lower class families. Since lower class families had no
permanent income, they were reluctant to take loans thinking that they might not be
able to settle loan in time and fall into trouble. As majority of the families belonged to
the middle class in these villages, a significant proportion of families, 46% said that they
were indebt. (Table C 33 and 34). Their indebtedness was not so high, as more than half
of the families that was in debt said that their indebtedness amounted to Rs. 10,000 to
Rs. 50,000. Indebtedness exceeded Rs. 100,000 only in 11% of the families.
Migration
Out of 392 households responded only 21 had migrated in. All the others were residing in
these villagers since birth and were Sinhala Buddhists. (Tables C29 and C30).

5.5 Child Labour in Coir Industry

Out of 435 children aged 5-17 years 255 (58.6%) were engaged in various household
work, while attending school. Only 17 children were not attending school in this age
group and were engaged in various economic activities. As given in the Table 7, below,
most of the children assisted parents in cooking, washing cloths, cleaning the house,
bring water and going to the boutique.

Table 5.7
Number of children engaged in household work by type of work.
Age group
Task 5-9 yrs 10-14 yrs 15-17 yrs Total %
Bringing water 5 14 11 30 11.8
Collecting firewood 1 12 4 17 6.7
Cooking 3 28 36 67 26.3
Washing clothes 6 21 24 51 20.0
Child care 1 5 1 7 2.7
Go to the boutique 14 28 10 52 20.4
Cleaning house 6 18 6 30 11.8
Assisting family economic activity 0 1 1 0.4
Total 36 126 93 255 100.0
All children 135 178 122 435

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 Age group
Task 5-9 yrs 10-14 yrs 15-17 yrs Total %
% engaged in Household work 26.7 70.8 76.2 58.6

Child labour
On the other hand 78 children aged 5-17 years were engaged in some sort of economic
activity (Table C11). 52 of them were unpaid family workers. Six children were in
regularly paid employments, while 9 were doing casual work and all of them were aged
10-17 years. Another nine were self-employed. None of the children aged 5-9 years were
in paid employment.

41 children aged 5-17 years were not attending school and out of them 26 were engaged
in some economic activity.

Majority of the children working as unpaid family workers (60%) said that their
payments were received by their mothers, as they were working as unpaid family
workers. (Table C12). There were around 16 children, who worked out side home for pay
and they received the payment themselves. It seemed that the money thus received by
children was given to parents for household expenditure. 74% of the children said that
the money they received was spent by mother and some of those who received money
themselves had spent it themselves.

Parent’s attitude
The main reason (51% - Table C14), why parents allowed children to engage in economic
activities as unpaid family workers or otherwise, while going to school, was the need for
additional income to support the family. At the same time some parents said that
children helped household income generating activities voluntarily, and parents
tolerated it. Children attending household chores were a common thing in these rural
villages and never considered it as child labour.

Parents were asked if the child stops working how it would affect the family (Table C
15). Most of the parents, 49%, said that it would not affect the family, but 35% said that
their family income would seriously get affected and their standard of living would

78
decline. It was also asked about the person who took the decision that the child should
be allowed to engage in economic activities, while going to school. 76% said that the
child him/herself had taken the decision, as they worked as unpaid family workers.
Sometimes the mother (22%) had asked the child to work considering the family income
level.

86% of these children worked in the household. Very few worked out side home (Table
C18). As majority of the working children worked as unpaid family workers, in the
household, while going to school, 88% of the parents said that they were happy about
children working (Table C17). Any way, as shown above, nearly half of these parents
were of the opinion that even if the children keep away from engaging in economic
activities, it would not affect their family. Only 9% of the parents were not happy about
their children engaging in economic activities. Most of the parents allowed their
children to work because of poverty. 84% of the parents said that if they had enough
income, they would not allow their children to work. (Table C28).

Hazards
As the children worked in the home environment, 76% of them said that they were not
exposed to any hazards, but 10% of them experienced long hours of work and inadequate
sleep (Table C19). At the same time almost all of them (96%) said that they never got
hurt. As shown above very few of the children worked out side home and none of them
said that their employers were bad to them. Employers treated them moderately. (Table
C21). At the same time those who worked out side home also said that they were paid
moderately. However, 18% said the pay was low. (Table C22). Their health risks were
also low (89%). (Table C23). Very few of the children, 6%, said they were very tired.
Others said moderately tired or not tired at all. (Table C24). Anyway with regard to the
working situation a considerable proportion, 24% said that it was not acceptable.
However, majority, 76%, said that their working situations were acceptable. (Table
C25). Those who could not accept the working conditions, showed harsh conditions and
psychological stress associated with their work as reasons. (Table C27).

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As majority of the children worked as unpaid family workers they had no legal contracts
with the employers. At the same time receiving payments in time also did not apply to
these children. On the other hand though children were involved in earning they did not
save any money. Their parents too were not interested in opening saving accounts in
savings bank, as whatever money they earned was spent on family day to day affairs.

Households with Child Labour

All the households may be grouped as households with children working in coir
industry, households with children working in other sectors and households without
child labour. As given in Table 8, below, 36 households had children working in coir
industry, while 19 had children working outside in other economic sectors. A large
majority of households 85% had no working children.

Table 5.8
Number of households by employment status
No. of
Status households
Child Labour in coir industry 36
Child labour in other sector 19
Withut child labour 329
Total 384

Indebtedness
Majority of the households in coir industry were indebted, than the other households, as
given in Table 5.9 below.
Table 5.9
Number and percentage of households by indebtedness
Status Yes No Total Yes No Total
Child Labour in coir industry 23 14 37 62.2 37.8 100.0
Child labour in other sector 11 8 19 57.9 42.1 100.0
Without child labour 145 186 331 43.8 56.2 100.0
Total 179 208 387 46.3 53.7 100.0

Quality of house
With regard to the quality of house, majority were ranked fair or good and poor houses
were less than 30%.

80
Table 5.10
Number and percentage of households by quality of house
Poor Fair Good Total Poor Fair Good Total
Child Labour in coir industry 10 24 2 36 27.8 66.7 5.6 100.0
Child labour in other sector 3 12 3 18 16.7 66.7 16.7 100.0
Without child labour 73 226 34 333 21.9 67.9 10.2 100.0
Total 86 262 39 387 22.2 67.7 10.1 100.0

Place of work
As given in Table 5.11, the majority, 85%, of the children worked at home and as the coir
industry was a cottage industry.
Table 5.11
Number and percentage of children by place of work of children
Age group
Where does the child work? 5-9 yrs 10-14 yrs 15-17 yrs Total %
Home 8 37 21 66 85.7
Shops/boutique, 0 1 1 2 2.6
Field 0 2 2 2.6
Employer's House, 0 2 1 3 3.9
Others 0 1 3 4 5.2
Total 8 41 28 77 100.0

Qualitative data
The qualitative data collected from some of these households indicated that children
tend to drop out of school just because of poverty. Considering the hardships at home
most of these children used to engage in coir industry helping the mother, after school
and used to work full time on Saturdays and Sundays. None of these children went for
higher education or private tuition. The aim of majority of parents and children was to sit
for GCE O/L and stop going to school. Parents were not much aware of the child’s higher
education, as they had no high hopes for future.

The breadwinner of some of these households died of tsunami. After the father’s
/husband’s death the whole family got into a terrible situation. Children tried to support
the mother, earning a few rupees, dropping out of school. Mother engaged in coir
industry assisted by children to support the family.

81
In these villages women engaged in coir industry used hand-machines and it needed
three persons to operate it. If they get an outsider to help them they had to pay and the
household income reduces. Therefore, mother preferred her children to help her, after
school.
There were cases where the father had deserted the family. Then the mother and the
children try to live engaging in coir industry and children often stop schooling.

In order to eliminate or control child labour, it is highly necessary to create awareness

among parents about children’s higher education and raising the quality of their children.
At the same time it is necessary to stop exploitation that exists in the coir industry and
introduce a suitable payment system.

5.6 Conclusion
400 households engaged in coir industry in Galle and Matara districts were enumerated
and there were 1800 household members in these households. The size of the vulnerable
child population aged 5-17 years was around 435. Out of them 58% were engaged in
household activities and 18% in economic activities. In this vulnerable age group only 17
children dropped out of school and joined the labour force and worked out side home.
All the other children of school going age of 5-17 years were attending school and some of
them helped their parents in their home based economic activities and a considerable
proportion of children helped their mother in her daily household chores.

Coir industry in the South is mainly a cottage industry and often it is not the main
occupation of the household. Housewives in leisure time and children after school
engaged in this industry to support the family income. The quality of majority of
households was moderate and belonged to the lower middle class. Only one out of ten
houses was treated as belonging to the lower class. In general economy of majority in
these villagers were not bad, as more than half the households admitted that their
income was sufficient.

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Out of the working children a very small proportion of children, 17 children, worked out
side home and did not attend school. All the other working children attend school and
engaged in home based economic activities voluntarily. Parents appreciated children
helping household chores and household economic activities. They did not take this type
of work as child labour. None of these children were exposed to employment hazards
and exploitation, as they worked at home. However, a very few children felt tired and
exhausted and some experienced psychological stress.
Actually majority of parents said that even if children stop working it would not affect
their household income. Some parents said that if they have a sound economic base they
would not allow their children to work.

All the children assisting household income did not get money directly. The money they
earned was taken by mother and spent on household needs. None of the parents were
concerned about saving some money for the working children for their future use. At the
same time parents were not much concerned about motivating their children for higher
education. Once children get used to earning money at the school going age, they tend to
drop out of school after around 10 years of schooling and enter labour market.

83
 Chapter 6: Fisheries Sector

6.1 Background and scope of the study

Recruitment of children as laborers has long been practiced as a way of gaining access to
cheap labor. Large scale child labor was reported in the Western world during the time
of industrial revolution that transformed the western societies from agrarian to
industrialized ones. The practice of child labor can also be found widely in the Eastern
societies as well. Child labor was considered as a social norm and it became part of life.
The modern societies recognize the right of a child and setup institutional and legal
frameworks to minimize or eradicate the incidence of child labor. Yet the practice of
child labor is prevalent in the developing world. Widespread poverty, illiteracy, and
social attitudes towards child labor are some explanatory factors that have caused the
practice of child labor in these countries.

Sri Lanka has an exclusive economic zone of 517,000sq.km. The country's continental
shelf has an average width of 22 km and its total extent is 30,000sq.km. The coastline of
the country is 1,700 km. There are 103 rivers that flow into the sea radically from the
central hills of the country contributing to the productivity of the marine waters.

Inland water resources of the country comprise lagoons, estuaries, reservoirs, tanks,
rivers etc. There are 45 major lagoons and the estuaries with the total extent of 158,
000ha spread along the coastline. The area covered by mangrove zones, mud flats and
salt marshes scattered along the coastal area is 71,000ha.

A total of 260,000ha of freshwater bodies comprising 155,000hactare of perennial

reservoirs, 100,000hactare of seasonal tanks and 5000hactare of villas exist scattered all
over the country, particularly in the dry zone.

Tere are 12 fishery harbours in operation. They are located at Mulwal, Panadura,
Beruwala, Hikkaduwa, Galle, Mirrissa, Puranawella, Kudawella, Tangalle, Kirinda,

84
Trincomalee (Cod-bay) and Kalpitiya. In addition there are 35 anchorages and about 600
minor fish landing centres.

The fishing fleet comprises 32,000 boats of which, about 15,000 are non-mechanized
traditional boats. Of the balance about 1,600 are multi-day vessels which are used for
deep sea fishing. The contribution of fisheries sector to the national economy has been
1.53 percent in 2007 (CBoSL 2007). Being an island nation Sri Lanka could have tapped
its marine resources optimally and contributed more to the national economy if there
were peace prevails in the country. Yet a considerable proportion of the people have been
employed in this sector.

Child labor is prevalent in the fisheries sector as there has been a wider room for informal
activities that have not been recorded in the official records. An ILO-IPEC country paper
on Sri Lanka published in September 1999, found that one of the most destructive forms
of child labor in Sri Lanka prevails in the fishing industry. The report also observed that
“children are recruited in the fishing ‘vaadiyas’. Vaadiyas are very remote and children are
kept in conditions of virtual slavery”

This chapter of the report illustrates the results of the survey on child labor in the
fisheries sector conducted by SPARC, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, sponsored
and coordinated by the ILO.

Sri Lanka, as a country that has ratified ILO Coventions 138 and 182 related to child labor
is now trying to implement the process of these conventions. Sri Lanka has identified the
fisheries sector as one of the major source of child labor and therefore considers as a
priority sector which require remedial actions. Among the other priority sectors are:
children in armed conflicts, plantation tea/rubber sector, firework, motor garages,
construction and domestic child labor.

Although there has been some ground work is done, through previous Rapid Assessment
of some sectors, the size of the problem of child labor at the sub national level is not
known. Hence the current research is intended to shed some lights on issues pertaining
to child labor at sub national level.

85
The primary objective of this research is to estimate the size of the problem of child
labour in the fisheries sector terms of the size of the sector, and the size of child labor at
the sub national level. The survey estimates through a household baseline survey the size
of the child workers population directly involved in the production process in the
fisheries industry.

6.2 Administrative setup of the Fisheries Sector in Sri Lanka

The Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource is the main administrative body of
the Fisheries sector in Sri Lanka. Under the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resource, there are 15 divisional offices located along the coastal belt of Sri Lanka headed
by Assistant Directors who are supported by a network of fisheries Inspectors.

The divisional area has been divided to Fisheries Inspectors’ (FI) areas. GN division are
under the fisheries inspector.

6.3 Sample Selection

The Galle and Matara district have been selected for the survey.The sample size is 400
housholds.The minimum samlpe size of 200 households for each districts has been
assigned. Multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select primary sampling units.

Step one: 4 Fisheries Inspector (FI) divisions are selected at random form each districts.
Table 6.1
Sample Selections
District FI Division
Benthara
Balapitiya
Gall
Ambalangoda
Unawatuna
Dikwella
Kottagoda
Matara Gandara
Devinuwara

Two Hundred PSU will be selected from each FI division as follows.

86
Step two: One landing site was selected at random from each FI division.
Step Three: Fifty households were selected from each landing site at random.

Table 6.2
Percentage Distribution of Sample by Fisheries inspector Division (FI)
District Total
FI Division Galle Matara
Benthara .25 (50) .125 (50)
Balapitiya .25 (50) .125 (50)
Ambalangoda .25 (50) .125 (50)
Unawatuna .25 (50) .125 (50)
Dikwella .25 (50) .125 (50)
Kottagoda .25 (50) .125 (50)
Gandara .25 (50) .125 (50)
Devinuwara .25 (50) .125 (50)
Total 100(200) 100(200) 100 (400)

6.4 Child Labour in Fisheries Sector

Socioeconomics Background of the Population

Table 6.3
Gender of Population
Gender Percentage
Male 51.7
Female 48.3
Total 100.0

The survey population comprised 51.7 percent of male and 48.3 percent of female
members, a typical gender distribution of Sri Lanka where the male population remains
at 52.4 percent and that of female is at 47.6 percent (CBoSL 2006).

Table 6.4
Distribution of Population by Age
Age Percentage
0-4 Years 9.0
5-9 Years 8.5
10-14 Years 9.6
15-19 Years 9.3
20-24 Years 10.6

87
 Age Percentage
25-29 Years 9.4
30-34 Years 8.3
35-39 Years 6.1
40-44 Years 7.1
45-49 Years 6.0
50-54 Years 4.9
55-59 Years 3.9
60-64 Years 2.6
65-69 Years 2.0
Above 70 Years 2.6
Total 100.0

The majority of people surveyed falls under 50 years of age. And the age distribution
within 50 years seems to be almost equal for each class intervals of age. There’s no
significant concentration of a particular age group in the sample. Only the 20-24 age
category occupy more than 10 percent of the sample, while other age groups fall below 10
percent of the population

Table 6.5
Distribution of Population by Education Level
Percentage
Illiterate 2.0
No formal education, but can read and write .6
pre-school 2.8
Primary school (class 1 to 5) 21.0
upper primary school (class 6-8) 21.3
lower-secondary school (class 9-10) 35.4
upper-secondary school (class 10 to 13) 8.3
Technical education and vocational training .3

Table 6.5 reveals the level of education of the sample population. More than 5 percent of
the sample has received either no formal education or a pre school level education. More
than 42 percent of the population have received education up to grade 8. There is a
significant proportion of population, who have schooled up to ordinary levels comprised
more than 35 percent of the population. .

88
Table 6.6
Main Economic Activity of Population
Main Activity Percent
Employed 35.2
Unemployed 6.4
Student 23.6
Household Work 22.5
Retired/Unable to Work 2.4
Other .5
Not applicable ( Age below 5) 9.3
Total 100.0

The majority of the sample population is economically active. Over 35 percent of them
are employed while another 23 percent is engaged in household work. Nearly one quarter
of the population is students. Taken together, nearly 83 percent of the population is
actively engaged in economic activities.

Socioeconomics Background of the Household Head

Table 6.7
Gender of Household Head
Gender Percentage
Male 91.5
Female 8.5
Total 100.0

Over 91 percent of household surveyed were male headed households which a typical
reflection of the Sri Lankan male dominant society where the female take over the
driving seat only if the male member is absent or invalid.

Table 6.8
Distribution of Household Head by Age
Percent
20-24 Years 1.8
25-29 Years 6.3
30-34 Years 10.8
35-39 Years 9.3
40-44 Years 17.5
45-49 Years 12.8

89
 Percent
50-54 Years 12.8
55-59 Years 10.5
60-64 Years 7.3
65-69 Years 5.8
Above 70 Years 5.5
Total 100.0

The majority of household heads are aged between 30 to 60 years. Only 8.1 percent of the
house heads are aged between 20 and 29 years. Altogether 71.3 of household heads are in
the working age. The rest of nearly 30 percent household heads are senior citizens who
have passed the official age of retirement of 55 years.
Table 6.9
Education Level of Household Head
Level of Education Valid Percent
Illiterate 4.0
No formal education, but can read and write 1.8
Primary school (class 1 to 5) 28.2
Upper primary school (class 6-8) 27.7
Lower-secondary school (class 9-10) 33.5
Upper-secondary school (class 10 to 13) 4.3
Technical education and vocational training .3
University graduate and over .3
Total 100.0

The level of education of the household head is a determinant factor of the quality and
the nature of a household. The decision on child labor is greatly influenced by the level of
education of parents who are often to be the household heads. Table 6.9, shows that
nearly 6 percent of the household heads are illiterate or has no schooling. A huge majority
of the household heads (89.4 percent) have received education up to class 10. Among
them, than 28 percent have completed the primary school and another equal percentage
(27.7 percent) have completed the upper primary and 33.5 percent have passed the upper
secondary. Put it in a nutshell, one third of the household heads were relatively well
educated and this should be considered as a positive trend in the fishing community.

90
Table 6.10
Main Economic Activity of Household Head
Economic Activity Percent
Employed 88.3
Unemployed 0.3
Household Work 6.0
Retired/Unable to Work 5.3
Other 0.3
Total 100.0

Almost all household heads were engaged in some form of economic activities. Only a
tiny proportion of 0.3 percent was unemployed.

Household Background
Table 6.11
Perception on Quality of House (in terms of space, privacy, roofs, walls, latrines)
Perception Percentage
Poor 19.4
Fair 66.9
Good 13.6
Total 100.0

The basic conditions of more than 80 percent of the households surveyed were fair or
good meaning the fishing community does not live in households with extremely poor
conditions compare to the shelters in the slums and shanties in cities or the so called
“line houses” in the plantations.

Table 6.12
Ownership of Land
Description Percentage
No land 9.9
Less than 2 acres 87.8
2-3 acres 2.3
Total 100.0
An overwhelming 90.1 percent of the households possess their own land. Many of them
own less than two acres of land and a little more than 2 percent own 2 -3 acres of land.
Indeed, land ownership is an important factor that determines the economic and
physical quality of life and social status of a individual as well as a family in the Sri
Lankan society.

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Table 6.13
Type of Fuel Used for Cooking at Home?
Type of Fuel Valid Percent
Gas 14.4
Electric 0.8
Firewood 82.4
Kerosene 1.0
Gas and Kerosene 1.3
Gas ,Kerosene and cow dung 0.3
Total 100.0

The households mainly use firewood as a cooking fuel a typical observation among the
low income communities in Sri Lanka. However, a fair proportion of households have
also utilized gas as the main source of fuel for cooking purposes.
Table 6.14
Electricity Supply to Household
Percentage
Yes 92.4
No 7.6
Total 100.0

Table 6.14 illustrates that almost all households surveyed have access to electricity.
Nearly 8 percent of them do not have electricity connections. This percentage is indeed a
higher record than the national average and in the regional averages. Perhaps the reason
might be the type of area that has been selected for the survey. This long southern coastal
belt has to be one of the fast urbanizing areas which gain access to all basic facilities
including electricity.
Table 6.15
Dependency on Social Welfare facilities such as Samurdi
Percentage
Yes 41.4
No 58.6
Total 100.0

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It is quite interesting to note that, though the quality of the households as discussed
previously was relatively good, the dependency of those households on government
welfare handout seems to be very significant. More than 40 percent of the households
were beneficiaries of Samurdhi welfare benefits. Table 2.4.5 also reveal that more than 88
percent of the household receive a monthly income of more than Rs.10,000 which is well
above the income threshold which make an household to qualify for Samurdhi benefits.
The obvious question then is how these 40 percent of households qualified for
government welfare benefits. Only 1.5 percent of the households in the sample receive a
monthly income of Rs.5000.00 or less.

Table 6.16
Income distribution of the households
Income Distribution
Valid Percent
Below Rs.2500 0.5
Rs.2500 to Rs.4999 1
Rs.5000 to Rs.7499 3.4
Rs.7500 to Rs.9999 6.5
Rs.10000 to Rs.12499 12
Above Rs.12500 76.6
Total 100

Socioeconomic Background of children

Table 6.17
Main Activities of Children
Percentage
Employed 2.1
Unemployed 3.2
Student 91.7
Household Work 0.7
Other 0.7
Not applicable ( Age below 5) 1.6
Total 100.0

Nearly 92 percent of the child population in the survey area were students. This
coincides with the national average. Traditionally the Southern coastal belt has produced
educated citizens, thanks to the Western missionaries operated in these areas in the 19th
and 20th centuries. Hence the appetite for education is high among the people living

93
along the coastal belt. Table 6.17 shows that only 5.9 percent of the children surveyed
were either employed or unemployed i.e., seeking for an employment.
Table 6.18
Distribution of Children by Marital Statues
Valid Percent
Never married 99.5
Currently married 0.5
Total 100.0

Child marriages are uncommon in Sri Lanka including the fisheries societies as indicated
in the table 6.18 only a tiny 0.5 percent of the children are currently married.

Characteristics of Working Child

Table 6.19
Age Distribution of Child Labourers
Age in Years Percentage
Below 12 years 7.1
12- 16 years 50.0
16- 17 years 42.9
Total 100.0

The majority of child workers are more than 12 years old. Half of them fall under between
12-16 years of age. Another 43 percent are older than 16 years but less than 18 years. The
number child workers below 12 years are very low as 7.1 percent of the total number of
child workers.

Table 6.20
Distribution of Sex of Child Workers
Sex Percentage
Male 78.6
Female 21.4
Total 100.0
Unsurprisingly, nearly 80 percent of the child workers are boys. When there is a need for
child work, boys generally take up the challenge. Also there is a general trend that male
children often dropout from schools while the female children are continuing with their
education.

94
Table 6.21
Level of Education of Child Workers
Education Percentage

primary school (class 1-5 7.1

upper primary school (class 6-8) 35.7
lower-secondary school (class 9-10) 57.2
Total 100.0

A majority 57.2 percent of child workers have completed their lower secondary
education while another 35.7 percent have gone school up to class 8. This goes in line
with the general observation elsewhere in Sri Lanka that high dropout rates were
observed in upper primary and lower secondary levels.

Table 6.22
Employment status of the Working Child
Age in Years Percentage

Unpaid family worker 14.3

Paid employee (casual) 78.6
Others 7.1
Total 100.0

Child worker’s main occupational category has been casual paid employee. Since it is
legally banned to employee children in the formal sector and the implementation of a
monitoring in the informal sector, it is difficult for children to find permanent
employment even in the informal sector. A significant proportion of child workers are
engage in unpaid family work as well.
Table 6.23
Working hours per week on average
Hours per week Percentage
7 7.1
10 7.1
12 7.1
30 7.1
40 21.4
42 7.1
44 7.1
45 7.1
48 7.1
60 14.3
80 7.1
Total 100.0

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The working hours of child workers vary from 7 hours to 80 hours per week. A
significant proportion of children work 40 hours a week more than 14 percent of
children spend 60 hours a week to work.

Table 6.24
Income and expenditure decisions of child work
Receipt of income by child work Spending decisions on income from child
(percentage) work (percentage)
Self 84.6 46.2
Mother 7.7 23.1
Mother & self 7.7 23.1
Grant parents 0.0 7.7
Total 100.0 100.0

The income from child work is received mainly by the child him/herself. In some cases
mothers have received the payment. Interesting that father has no role in receiving the
income earned by child work. Though it is the child who receives the money the
spending decisions are taken by mother I consultation with the child.

Table 6.25
Main reason for child working
Reason Percentage
Cannot afford Schooling 14.3
Family need the income 28.6
Child has reached working age 14.3
No opportunity to do a other job 14.3
Children help family business voluntary 7.1
Children do not like to go to school 7.1
Children like to work 7.1
Family need income and Child has reached working age 7.1
Total 100.0

A majority of the respondents have cited that either the family need the child’s income or
simply the household cannot afford schooling as the main reasons for child work. 14.3
percent of respondents believed that their children have achieved the working age and
thus been employed. An equal proportion of the respondents have since there is no
opportunity to do another job the children are employed at the current work.

96
Table 6.26
The Impact of stopping child work
Impact Percentage
Household living standard decline 57.1
Household can not afford to live 7.1
Does not affect any way 28.6
Household living standard decline & can not afford living 7.1
Total 100.0

Many households believed that the living standards of the household will decline if the
child stops working and do something like schooling. 7.1 percent of the households
simply put it boldly that they cannot afford to live without the support of income
generated by child work. Another similar percentage of 7.1 percent expressed that both
can happen if the child stop working. For nearly 29 percent of households stopping child
labor does not have a bearing. At policy making level, this last group can easily be
handled but the former require additional support and guidance if available long lasting
solution for child labor has to be found.

Table 6.27
Decision making on child work
Decision maker Percentage
Him /Her Self 92.9
Father and him self 7.1
Total 100.0

In the fisheries sector the decision of child work has been taken by him/her self. Parents
have played only a marginal role in the decision. Even in such cases the decision had not
been taken exclusively by parents. In this community, when a child find it difficult to
cope with studies he or she used to come up with an idea of doing a job. Even though
parents resist to the decision initially, since the child show no interest in education they
also have to agree to the decision. Since there is a window of opportunity for a child to
do some odd jobs in the fishing industry the children drop out from school and take up
works.

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Table 6.28
Are you happy with your child/children working?
Percent
Yes 85.7
No 14.3
Total 100.0
Majority of parents feel happy about their children’s work partly because the children
would have been doing nothing other than loitering with friends if they were not
engaged in some form of economic activity.

Table 6.29
Place of work
Place of work Percent
Home 14.3
Field 64.3
Others 21.4
Total 100.0

The majority of children work outside their homes either in the field or other places.
Field in this case might be referring to sea and sea shore or places such as ‘vaadiyas’.
Since the children in the fishing community are also engaged in works not related to
fishing industry such as construction, these are categorized under the category of
‘others’ in the table 6.29 on place of work.

Table 6.30
Main Type of hazards faced at work
Types of Hazard Percent
Exposure to chemicals or pesticide 7.1
Exposure to dust 14.3
Long hours of work/ inadequate sleep 14.3
Lifting and carrying heavy things 7.1
Night work 21.4
Exposure to chemical and Long hours of work 7.1
No hazed 28.6
Total 100.0

It comes out from the research that the main hazard faced by child workers include long
hours of work, inadequate sleep, night work, and exposure to dust. These have an
adverse impact on the child’s physical and mental conditions.

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Table 6.31
Employer treatment of child
Percent
Moderate 66.7
Good 33.3
Total 100.0

The study reveals that the employers of child labor treat them fairly well. This result
seems to have contradicted the general perception on employers’ treatment of child labor
in the fishing industry. However, one third of the child workers in the sample have not
happy with the salary they receive from employment. (Table 6.32)

Table 6.32
Wages received by child.
Percent
low 33.3
moderate 66.7
Total 100.0

Table 6.33
Suitability of current working situation
Percent
Yes 92.9
No 7.1
Total 100.0

The perception on current working conditions of child workers is positive for most
cases. The majority believe the conditions are good and suitable for the children to work.
This is an important observation because a general perception, particularly about the
fisheries sector, is that the child workers are treated harshly even to the extreme of
slavery. The results of this rejects this perception with a 92.9 percent of majority.

Case I Galle

A 16 year old male child has engaged in income generation activities. His father has died while he was very
young. He had stopped schooling by his own wish. Even his mother had compelled him to go to school he
had not shown any interest in studies. Initially his mother did not like him to go for work. But since he has
shown any interest in studies mother had not objected to his decision to work. He earns money by selling
fish. During vacations he engage in masonry as a helper. The child spends his earnings by his own and had

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helped occasionally his mother by providing money. Since the income he generates is insufficient his
mother wanted him to switch from his current job.

Case II Matara

A 17 year old female child is engaged in making dry fish with her mother. They are doing this work in their
home. They generate an income as little as Rs 3000.00 a month from this activity. And the money is
utilized for the household spending. She has sat for the O/L exam but failed to pass it. The mother
concluded that the child had to engage in this activity because of her failure to pass the O/L exam.

Case III Galle

A 16 year old male child is engaged in sea fishing. In addition, he is also engaged in such economic activities
as selling fish, washing fishing boats, and other jobs for daily wage. He has schooled up to grade 8 while he
was schooling he had also engaged in selling fish in the roadside, which he earned by washing fishing
boats. His school friends had started calling him by the nick name of ‘fisher man’. Annoyed by this the
child had stopped schooling rather than doing the other way around -stopping selling fish. Now he is also
engaged in masonry as a helper. The parents are happy about his work as they feel that it is better for the
child to engage in some economic activity rather than loitering in vain with unsuitable friends consuming
cigarettes and alcohol.

Households having child labour

All the households may be grouped as
a). households with child labour in Fisheries Sector ,
b). households with child labour in other sectors and
c). households without child labour

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Access to social security programs such as Samurdhi

A little over 40 percent of the households with child labor receiving social security
benefits such as Samurdhi and the rest are not receiving any support.

Sufficiency of income State of debt of family

sufficient insufficient Suffering from Not suffering
debt from debt
Households with child 80.0 20.0 30.0 70.0
labor in the fishing sector
Households with child 25.0 75.0 75.0 25.0
labor in other sectors
Households without child 62.3 37.7 43.2 56.8
labor
Total households 62.3 37.7 43.1 56.9

Table 6.34
Sufficiency of income and the state of debt burden

The data in the table reveal that 62 percent of households with child labor consider their
current income as adequate to support the family. More than 43 percent of the house
holds with child labor are suffering from debt burden. This may lead us to the conclusion
that majority of children who are employed not doing so because of reasons related to
economic difficulties. It is interesting to note that 80 percent of the households with
child labor have expressed that the current income is sufficient to meet the expenses.
Only 30 percent of such households are indebted.
Table 6.35
Access to electricity and household quality

Access to electricity Household quality in terms of:

privacy, roof, floor, walls,
latrines
Households Households Poor Fair Good
with electricity without electricity
Households with child labor in 100.0 0.0 20.0 80.0 0.0
the fishing sector
Households with child labor in 100.0 0.0 25.0 75.0 0.0
other sectors
Households without child labor 92.1 7.9 19.4 66.5 14.1
Total households 92.4 7.6 19.4 66.9 13.6

The perception data of households with child labor on household quality and connection
to electricity also reveal that the large majority of households have supplied with

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electricity. The household perception data also show that the quality of the majority of
the households (80.5%) in terms of privacy, type and quality of roof, floor, walls and
latrine facilities have been rated as good or fair. Less than 20 percent of the households
live in poor quality households.

Table 6.36
Educational Qualification of the household head
Educational qualifications Households with Households with Households
child labor in child labor in other without child
fishing sector sectors labor
Illiterate 10.0 3.9
No formal education but literate 1.8
Primary schooling (class1-5) 30.0 28.5
Upper primary school (class 6-8) 20.0 100.0 27.2
Lower Secondary school (class 9- 40.0 33.7
10)
Upper secondary school (class 10-13) 4.4

Technical vocational training 0.3

University graduate and over 0.3

The highest level of educational qualification of all household heads with child labor in
the fisheries sector has been the lower secondary school. However, the educational
qualification of the house holds without child labor is almost the same i.e., 95.1 percent of
the household heads.

6.5 Conclusions
The findings of the current research lead us to the conclusion that low income and
resultant poverty has an impact on the practice of child labor in the fisheries sector. It
came out from the household interviews that the living standards of household to fall in
the absence of child labor or simply they cannot afford to live without the income
support from child work. However, there has been no evidence found in the survey for
forced child labor or slavery in the sector. In most reported cases of child labor the
children themselves had made the decision to work. Even in cases in which the parents
play a part in the process it was done with the consent of the child. Some children have
started working while they were schooling as a part time job. Nevertheless, they had
withdrawn themselves from schooling for a host of reasons including the need to support
their family, difficult to cope with studies, different treatment by fellow students,

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attraction of money over education etc. In this sector, majority of child workers were
more than 12 years old and have received education up to grade 8. they mainly work in
the filed or in other places. A majority of them work 40 to 60 hours a week.

The income generated by child work has been utilized mainly by the children
themselves. Parents have also spent the money to support family expenses. In some cases
the income has been utilized to support education activities of younger siblings of the
child worker.

The major problems the child workers face include long working hours, night work,
exposure to burning sun and dust and the like. In some cases, the income generated from
child work was very low, but many child workers and their parents feel that the
employers treat the child workers fairly. And a wide majority of the child workers are
satisfied with prevailing working conditions.

Another fact that surfaces from the research is that parents prefer that the children to be
occupied themselves in work rather than wasting time with friends and invite
unnecessary trouble for them. Parents believe that ideal place for a child is school but if
the child was unwilling to continue with studies they have no choice other than keeping
them occupy in a useful activity.

It is important to keep the children in the schools if child labour were to be irradiated.
But it seems that the school drop out are not initiated by parents. Even the parents are
willing and afford to educate their children; the children were not willing to do so.
Hence, one possible solution to the problem should be making school education
attractive to the children.

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References:

Lanka Business Online (July 14, 2007), Sri Lanka, ILO to probe use of child labor in
agriculture, available at: www.lankabusinessonline.com/print.php?nid=783868833
accessed on 26.5.2008.
CWA News Latter (Jan-March 1997) ‘Live –in’ Servants in Sri Lanka, Child Workers in
Asian News Letter, Vol.13, no.1.
IPEC (2004) Child Labor and Responses: Overview Note- South Asia, International
Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC), International Labor Organization,
Geneva.
Department of Census and Statistics, Ministry of Finance & Planning (1999) Child
Activity Survey, Sri Lanka, Department of Census and Statistics, Ministry of Finance &
Planning, Colombo.
Labor Force Survey (1996) : A Study on Plantation Labor, Jathika Estate Workers’
Union and Asian American Free Labor Institute, 1996:26, Colombo.

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