Child labour has long been a problem in China. In recent years, the use of child labour has risen due to the labour shortage in areas along China's eastern coast. Most child workers are employed by small and medium-sized companies to do simple jobs for which little skill is required. Research on the problem of child labour in China and elsewhere has shown that there are several key causes, but poverty remains the principal reason.
China Labour Bulletin found that issue of child labour in China was a problem on both the supply and demand sides of the labour market. When analyzing the problem of child labour, it was important to consider both market demand for child labour and the potential child labour supply which existed outside the formal labour market. At the back of this analysis was the desire to answer the question why has China been unable to effectively stamp out child labour despite its many attempts.
China Labour Bulletin carried out fieldwork on this issue in several areas in China between May and July 2005. Researchers conducted 77 interviews with all kinds of workers, including child workers, students, parents and teachers, rural residents and government officials in eight cities and towns in Hebei, Henan and Guangxi provinces.
On the demand side, the report describes the working and living conditions of the child workers; and on the supply side, it shows the inadequacies of China's mandatory education system which raised the potential for child labour. CLB researchers discovered that poverty was a prerequisite for child labour, but that it was not the only criteria. Expressed another way, poverty was one of the main sources creating the potential for child labour, but other factors, such as the education system in the area and the labour market, also played important roles.
This report is divided into four parts: the first part introduces the child labour situation in China and gives a brief introduction to the laws and measures used to prohibit child labour. The second part uses first hand accounts obtained in the fieldwork to describe the living and working conditions of child workers in various factories. The third part is the main section of this report, and using the information obtained in the fieldwork reveals the reasons which create the potential for child labour. China Labour Bulletin's conclusions and recommendations are presented in the fourth and final section.
This report is currently being translated into English. The Chinese version is available on our website and can be accessed using the following link:
http://big5.china-labour.org.hk/fs/view/Childlabour_simplified_chinese.pdf