Poverty, literacy and child labour in Nepal: a district-level analysis.

PIP: 1991 census data on the prevalence of child labor in the 75 districts of Nepal are analyzed to determine the relationship of poverty and literacy on the prevalence of child labor. The census collected data on labor among children aged 10-14 years as well as upon their duration of work. No data were collected on labor among children aged 5-9 years. Child labor in this analysis refers to children aged 10-14 years gainfully employed for 6 months of longer in exchange for cash or kind. 422,286 (18%) of the country's 2.3 million children aged 10-14 worked at least 6 months during the year preceding the census, while an additional 4.6% worked for less than 6 months. There is a wide variation in the prevalence of child labor in the 75 districts, ranging from 4.5-36.2% among boys and 5.5-79% among girls. Districts with a higher incidence of poverty are associated with a higher percentage of working children, while districts with a lower percentage of literates are associated with a significantly higher level of child labor. Female children are more strongly affected by poverty than males. Intervention programs designed to reduce the level of child labor need to focus upon both reducing poverty and increasing literacy.^ieng

Socioeconomic and cultural differentials in age at marriage and the effect on fertility in Nepal.

Age at marriage is one of the factors that influence the fertility behaviour of women, particularly in a society like Nepal where contraceptive use is low. Socioeconomic and cultural factors, particularly religion and ethnicity, are important variables in determining age at marriage in Nepal. Fertility was negatively related with age at marriage. Marriage duration had a greater influence on fertility than age at marriage, although these were strongly correlated.

PIP: Nepal's total fertility rate--6.3 births/woman in 1981--is directly related to age at marriage, which is in turn influenced by socioeconomic and cultural factors. These relationships were analyzed through data on 5150 currently married women 15-49 years of age interviewed as part of the 1986 Nepal Fertility and Family Planning Survey. Overall, the mean age at marriage among survey respondents was 15.9 years. There were significant differentials, however, by religious and ethnic groups. The mean marriage age was 14.6 years among Muslim respondents and 15.8 years among Hindu women compared with 18.9 years for Buddhists. The Mongoloid Tibetan women had the highest mean age at marriage (18.2 years) and Brahmans had the lowest (14.2) years. The few respondents who worked before marriage married 1 year later than their nonworking counterparts, and mean age at marriage was 10 months later among women with some education compared to the unschooled. Women from the Terai region married at an average of 15.3 years, while those from the Hill and Mountain regions married somewhat later (16.4 and 16.9 years, respectively). These patterns persisted even when urban and rural residence were controlled. Women who married before the age of 15 years had an average of 2 or more children than those who married at 21-24 years of age (4.82 compared with 2.84 children). However, the impact of age at marriage on completed fertility operates largely through the variable of duration of marriage. Since the negative effect on fertility of increased age at marriage is being offset by declines in adult mortality, increases in contraceptive prevalence are also required.