Child Trade-Off Theory: A Theoretical Discussion on the Structure, Causes, Consequences and Eradication of Child Labor

Abstract

Children are the future of our dreams and guarantee of their prosperity and success but they are exploited

in the form of child labor. Child labor is the employment of children those are too young to work for

wages in field jobs that are unsuitable or unsafe for them. It is a fact that, child labour has become a

burden for every economy. Even though child labour is considered illegal in most societies and it is still a

serious problem in a large number of nations. There are a number of factors which give rise to child labor.

These include poverty, illiteracy, job opportunities, family provision and dis-satisfaction from education

structure. By conducting an extensive literature review, this paper attempts to highlight all the major

causes of child labor and their consequences. Furthermore this paper explores and postulates the Child

Trade-off theory which discusses the tradeoff between education of children and child labor. This paper

also discusses factors which may play crux in the eradication of this problem.