Child Activity Survey 2009

A questionnaire, designed specifically to elicit information required for building up relevant estimates, was canvassed among the households selected in the sample. First the basic demographic information of all the person living in the sample households is recorded in the questionnaire and then the enumerator is directed to collect the relevant information from all the children in the age group of 5 - 17 years, living in the household. This is section A of the questionnaire.

The questions in section B (from B1 to B16) of the questionnaire are designed to ascertain the facts relating to the child's school attendance. The information on children, engaged in some form of economic activity, is collected in section B1 (questions from B17 to B30). If the child can be considered unemployed, relevant information is collected in section B2 and if the child is engaged in Family work, such information is collected in section B3. Health and safety issues of the working children are addressed in section C and the parent's/guardian's perceptions on working children are included in section D of the questionnaire. Information, to build up some indicators that reflect the social and economic status of the household is collected in section F of the questionnaire.

The Sections in Detail

Section A: Demographic Characteristics
In this section, all the persons who usually live in the selected household were listed and their basic demographic characteristics such as , year and month of birth, gender, ethnicity, religion, school attendance, level of education, marital status etc. were collected.

In addition, the members of this household who do not usually live here, but live elsewhere were also identified and their basic demographic characteristics were recorded.

Section B: Activity Status of Children
This section of the questionnaire was canvassed for all the children in the age group of 5 - 17 years, belonging to the sample household. This covers children who usually live in the particular household as well as those who live elsewhere but belongs to this household.

It has been primarily designed to ascertain the child’s school attendance status. If the child is attending school; the grade he/she is in; the distance to the school; mode of transport; number of school days missed etc, were collected. If the child is not attending school, the reason for such non attendance was also recorded.

Thereafter, questions were asked under the following sub sections, directly from the child:

Section B1: Economic Activity
Section B2: Unemployment
Section B3: Usual Activity Status
Section B4: Housekeeping activities
Section B5: Usual Residence of Child’s Parents
Section B1: Economic Activity

If the child is engaged in some form of economic activity, following information was collected:

1. Age at the time of working
2. Occupation
3. Industry
4. Employment status
5. Benefits and Income
6. Hours worked etc.

Section B2: Unemployment
A set of questions were asked to find out whether the child is in an ‘unemployed’ state, meaning that he/she is seeking work. Duration of unemployment was also asked if the child is considered “unemployed” according to the definition of “Unemployment”.

Section B3: Usual Activity Status
In this section, questions were asked to ascertain whether the child has done any work for a substantial period of time during last 12 months, in order to obtain the “Usual activity status” of the particular child. Occupation, Industry, Employment Status, days worked etc were asked from the child to ascertain whether he/she has done substantial work, during the past 12 months.

Section B4: Family work
Most of the children in Sri Lanka help the parents in their family work such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes etc., while attending school or even when engaged in some form of economic activity. However when the child’s activity in such engagements exceed acceptable limits affecting his/her studies and other personal activities, such engagements have warranted the attention of the survey. Questions were focussed to ascertain whether the child has been engaged in family work and if so the duration of such work. On the other hand if the child was never engaged in family work the reason for such a state of affairs to exist were also queried.

Section B5: Usual Residence of Child’s Parents
Questions were asked to find out whether the child’s parents live with the child. If either both or one of them do not live with the child, the place where they live was questioned.

Section C: Health and Safety (of all 5 – 17 year children who have worked anytime during the last week /12 months)
This section of the questionnaires is specially designed to ascertain the health and safety issues that arise when children are engaged in work. If the child has worked at any time during the last week or the last 12 months and if he has fallen ill or has been injured during that time, the following information relating to such illness or injury were collected.

1. The nature of such illness or injury
2. Frequency of occurrence of such illness or injuries.
3. Seriousness of the illness or injury
4. Whether the child was admitted to hospital
5. Whether the child operates any machinery/ heavy equipment.
6. Whether he/she is exposed to any health hazards

Section D: Perception of Parents / Guardians of the working child (of all children in the age group 5 – 17 years who usually live in this household including children who are members of this household but live elsewhere. However, this excludes boarders and servants who are found in the household.)
This section is designed to obtain the perception of Parents / Guardians of the working child with regards to

1. The type of work/activity they prefer the child to be engaged in
2. Their perceptions of the problems the child is faced with, at his/her work place
3. The main reason why the child is sent for work
4. The likely consequence of the child ceasing to work
5. Relationship of the child with his/her employer

Section E: Children living away from Household/ Family ( 5 – 17 years)
This section of the questionnaire aims to find out from the household, the reasons as to why the child is living away from this household: the commencement and the duration of this situation where the
child lives elsewhere and whether the child remits cash to the household, and if so the amount and frequency of such remittances.

Section F: Housing and Household Characteristics.
Generally it is believed that child labour is associated with living standard of the household. Therefore an attempt was made to measure the living standard of household by questioning on, housing characteristics, household assets, loans taken and income / expenditure of the household. The detail information collected under each area are listed below:

1. Housing characteristics
   Type of structure, tenure-ship of household; number of rooms; total floor area; materials used in the construction of walls, floor and the roof; sources of lighting and cooking; source of drinking water, toilet facilities, etc. were collected.

2. Household assets
   Livestock owned by the household was collected.

3. Loans taken by the household members
   Whether any household member has obtained loans during past 12 months, the reason for obtaining such loan and the sources of obtaining such loans etc., were asked under this section.

4. Average monthly income and expenditure
   Obtaining accurate information on household income and expenditure is not easy. Yet, as the household income and expenditure is expected to be highly correlated to the child labour situation, an attempt was made to obtain even some form of information to estimate the average monthly income and expenditure of every household that appears vulnerable to child labour.

5. Information on migration of household members.
   Whether the particular household has ever changed the place of residence and if so, the previous district of residence, year moved to current residence, reason for moving etc. were collected. Finally, the enumerator’s determination of the household’s living standard was recorded in the questionnaire.