Education Outcomes & Child’s Work: A Case Study of Children in Slum

Abstract

This study attempts to map two of the most vital social processes among children in the contexts of Slum. The two social processes being working and Learning; without violating the legislative frameworks on child labour, children working inside the household as domestic labour or in the household enterprise is a dominant phenomenon in the urban centers observed among those whose household income is derived from the informal sector and have lower income levels. The working forms and time vary from context to context. Due to the enormity of the informal sector in India and efforts to curb the exploitation of children due to labour, focus inlaid on making and implementation of social policy addressing child labour. In this light, this study tries to study the nature and forms of work undertaken by children in the slum, which inhabits a significant percentage of urban population. These working processes, although well in legal bounds, are yet observed to affect the education of the child, thereby highlighting the graveness of the problem even in legitimized forms. Educational outcomes are chosen as a tangible indicator to make sense of the learning process occurring in the child. This study highlights how various components that constitute educational outcomes are affected by the work undertaken by the child.