Rwanda National Child Labour Survey 2008
Rwanda, 2008
Get MicrodataIdentification
RWA-NISR-RNCLS-2008-v01
Rwanda National Child Labour Survey 2008
RNCLS 2008
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| RWANDA | RWA |
Child Labor Survey [hh/cls]
Child labour is a critical issue in Rwanda. This issue is considered as a socialization factor and gives rise to the problem of children’s participation in improving socioeconomic life of
their respective households, and even in improving that of the country.
The 2008 Rwanda National Child Labour Survey (2008-RNCLS) focused on children aged 5-17 years living in ordinary households countrywide. Street children and those living in
institutions like prisons, hospitals, children living in orphanages and others not living in ordinary households were not focused on in the survey.
Only households having children aged 5 -17 years were targeted by the 2008-RNCLS. In total 5,510 households were selected to constitute the survey sample and among them 5,084 were successfully identified and interviewed during the field survey, which is a response rate of nearly 92%.
Economic activities
The findings of the 2008-RNCLS show that children aged 5-17 years engaged in economic activities are estimated at 324,659 representing 11.2% of children in that age group. Almost half of them (5.3%) work full time while the remaining (5.9%) combine going to school with work.
Eastern Province is the most affected by child labour, since 15% of children aged 5-17 years are in employment. Western Province ranks second with 12.3%, followed by Southern
Province with 10.7%. Kigali City is the Province with the smallest number of children in employment with a proportion of 6.7%. It is worthy of mention, however, that Kigali City is the province with the biggest number of girls in employment.
The 2008-RNCLS findings indicate that 14.8% of children aged 5-17 years are neither in employment nor attend school. The occupation distribution by sex shows that more boys than
girls are unoccupied (15.9% for boys against 13.7% for girls), except in Kigali City where the proportion of unoccupied boys and girls is estimated at 12% and 15% respectively.
Concerning Provinces, the Northern Province and the Eastern Province register the lowest number of unoccupied children, which is 12.5% and 11.5% respectively. On the contrary,
the Southern Province and the Western Province regions see quite high proportions with 17.4% and 17% respectively.
Household chores
The vast majority of children carry out household chores (83.6%). The Northern Province and the Southern Province have high proportions (87.9% and 84,2% respectively). Children
enrolled in school spend less time on household chores than those not attending school (13 hours against 20 hours per week).
Characteristics of children’s economic activity
Agriculture sector employs the biggest number of children in employment with 79.3% while the Service Sector ranks second with 12.6% and the Industry Sector employs only 3.5% of
those children. It should be noted that the Service Sector mostly consists of domestic services and trade.
The number of children in the household chores reaches alarming proportions especially in the City of Kigali where 49.5% of children in employment carry out household chores. In
addition, the proportion of girls employed in domestic activities is nearly twice as big as that of boys. The majority of children affected by child labor are engaged in non paid family work
(64%). They are mainly found in Southern Province where 77.9% of occupied children are engaged in non paid family work.
Plantation is the main workplace of children in employment. In fact, approximately 70% of those children work in plantations and among them, those aged 10-15 years constitute the
largest number with a proportion of 74%. The proportion of those who carry out domestic chores within their own family comes at second position.
Children work an average of 24 hours per week for an economic activity. However, in the 16-17 year old age group, children employed full-time spend on work an average of 37 hours per
week while those combining work and school spend on it 11 hours per week.
Extent and characteristics of child labour
The findings of the 2008 RNCLS show that 190,395 children aged 5-17 years are engaged in child labour, representing 6.6% of all children in this age group. In Kigali, the proportion is
5.6%. Moreover, in Kigali, most of children in employment are involved in child labour (that is 83.1%) and boys’ proportion is slightly higher than that of girls (83.5% against 82.8%).
This trend is also observed in Provinces.
Among children in employment, 65,628 carry out hazardous work, representing 20.2% of all children in employment. This phenomenon is more prevalent in the City of Kigali where
60.4% of those children are engaged in such hazardous work. The Industry Sector emerges as the most hazardous sector for children, since 95.4% of all children engaged in that sector carry out hazardous work. In the same vein, household services rank second (with 71.5%) followed by the Services Sector (with 53.9%), followed by the Trade Sector (with 38.7%), and agriculture (with 24.1%)
As for the hours worked, the survey shows that the duration of child labour carried out by all children is an average of 30 hours per week, that is 6 hours per day, which duration is nearly
equal to that of adult labour (8 hours per day).
In Services Sector, the number of hours worked by children engaged in child labour is equal to that of hours worked by adults (42 hours per week). In the City of Kigali, with an average
of 53 hours worked per week, the number of hours worked by children is higher than that of work hours provided by law for adults. School attendance and child labour
The school attendance rate varies depending on whether children are in employment or not ; it remains lower in child labourers (57.1%) than in other children ( 88.6%). We note, however, that the school attendance rate decreases as the age of children increases, which appears suggesting that child labour has a negative influence on their schooling.
The lowest school attendance rate in child labourers is found in the City of Kigali with 17.2% compared to other Provinces. This trend can be explained by the predominance of the
Services Sector in Kigali, which is the most urbanised area in the country.
However, the performance of household chores appears to have no negative impact on children’s schooling. The school attendance rate decreases gradually as the age of children
increases, regardless of whether or not these children carry out household chores.
Among the reasons advanced for encouraging non-schooling in child labourers, is the lack of financial means of households which is cited as a prime cause, and this reason is the mostly frequently cited in Southern province. The reason ranking second is lack of will within the family to promote schooling of children especially that of girls who are forced to help with
domestic activities at home, which, over time, triggers girls’ lack of interest in school.
Children’s employment and health
According to the 2008-RNCLS, 31,000 child labourers aged 5-17 years (representing 16.3%) became ill or injured as a result of their employment and half of those children were engaged in full time employment
while the remaining proportion of such children combined work and school. Boys represent 62.7% of those children who became ill or injured.
It should be noted that some adverse consequences of work on children’s health can manifest many years later.
Finally, we note that the 2008-RNCLS revealed some underlying factors of child labour:
• Child age : the proportion of children in employment increases as the child grows older;
• The fact of not being a child of the head of household, contributes to an increase in child labour;
• Non-school attendance;
• Children living in a household where the head is less educated, is a female, widowed or single, or carries out agriculture activity;
• The decrease in the level of household income; and
• The distance between home and schoo
Sample survey data [ssd]
Households
Version
v0.1: Basic raw data, obtained from data entry
2008-09
Scope
The National Child Labour Survey has covered children aged 5 to 17 years living in ordinary households countrywide.
The sample of the National Child Labour Survey is a stratified two-stage sampling. The primary sampling stage is a cluster which is constituted of one enumeration block (EB). At first stage, enumeration areas constructed on the basis of the 2002 Rwanda General Census of Population and Housing served as sampling frame for the drawing of lots of a sample of 300 enumeration blocks or clusters with the distribution of 10 enumeration blocks per District.
For the second stage where the sampling unit was a household, a household list was first updated in each EB selected at primary stage and then a constant number of households have
been selected from the number of households that have children aged from 5 to 17 years, identified during households listing in each EB.
Coverage
National coverage
Village level which is the smallest administrative unit in Rwanda
The National Child Labour Survey has covered children aged 5 to 17 years living in ordinary households countrywide.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda | Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| International Labour Office | International Organization | Technical support |
| United Nations Children's Fund | International Organization | Technical support |
| Name | Abbreviation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| United Nations Children's Fund | UNICEF | Financial support |
| International Labour Office | ILO | Financial support |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA) | Government of Rwanda | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC) | Government of Rwanda | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) | Government of Rwanda | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| Ministry of Sports and Culture (MINISPOC) | Government of Rwanda | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) | Government of Rwanda | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| COSYLI, COTRAF, CESTRAR, Private Sector Federation (PSF) | National organization | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| National Human Right Commission (NHRC), | National organization | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| National Demobilisation Commission | National organization | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| National Police | Government institution | Deep collaboration on preparation and implementation of the survey |
| Local Leaders | Government institution | Assistance and contribution to the success of the survey |
| Households members | populations | provision of answers to interview questions |
| National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda | Government institution | Preparation and implementation of the survey |
| Mr RUTERANA Baudouin Abdorf | NISR staff | Analysis of data and report preparation coordinator |
| Yacouba Diallo | nternational Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) staff | Analysis of data and report preparation coordinator |
| MURANGWA Yusuf | Acting Director General of NISR | Supervision |
Sampling
The sample of the National Child Labour Survey is a stratified two-stage sampling. The primary sampling stage is a cluster which is constituted of one enumeration block (EB) as it was designed in 2002 Rwanda
General Census of Population and Housing.
At first stage, enumeration areas constructed on the basis of the 2002 Rwanda General Census of Population and Housing served as sampling frame for the drawing of lots of a sample of 300 enumeration blocks
or clusters with the distribution of 10 enumeration blocks per District. The drawing of lots has been carried out with a proportional probability to the size of each cluster. The size has been measured on the basis of
the number of households having children aged 5 to 17 years that constitute each enumeration block, according to the 2002 Rwanda General Census of Population and Housing. To pick those households, one has
considered the households which had children under 13 years old in 2002.
For the second stage where the sampling unit was a household, a household list was first updated in each EB selected at primary stage and then a constant number of households have been selected from the
number of households that have children aged from 5 to 17 years, identified during households listing in each EB.
No any deviation from the sapmling design.
The sample of the 2008-RNCLS initially comprised of 5,510 households. Following some non response cases, the number of households which were interviewed was lower than had
been anticipated in the sample. Non-response cases were due to many reasons including the lack of household location, the change of location of a household, the absence of household 13
members for interview, etc. In total 5,085 households were visited and interviewed during the 2008-RNCLS, representing a response rate of 92.3%.
The weighting of the household is given by the inverse of the probability to select such household(probability products obtained at each sampling stage). Given that all the survey data were entered into computer, it was very easy to relate to a household a corresponding weighting.
Survey instrument
The questionnaire comprises of three main parts. The first part covers all household members and allows to collect general information on their socio-demographic characteristics, their
economic activities and on perceptions of parents or guardians of children about child labour.
While the second part is about household characteristics and allow to collect information on housing and accommodation.
The third part focuses only on children and provides information on their education and their working status. It also provides information on the health and welfare of children in employment as well as their safety in the workplace. The questionnaire is appended to this report.
Data entry was carried out using CSPro software, which is a computer program developed by the United States Census Bureau and the Macro International MEASURE DHS and Serpro S.A. Data entry and verification of the internal consistency of answers were completed on 8th September 2008.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2008-06-06 | 2008-07-09 |
- Face-to-face [f2f]
| Name | Affiliation | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda | Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning | NISR |
In total, 90 people, among them 46 females and 44 males were recruited to collect data as part of the National Child Labour Survey in Rwanda. The recruitment was followed by the training of enumerators, which took place from 21st to 25th January 2008.The purpose of the training was to train field staff on the questionnaire and the methodology to be used once on the field.
The fist exercise consisted in contacting local authorities to whom team leaders and supervisors present survey objectives while requesting them to cooperate in the survey and sensitize the population. It also
consisted in identifying EBs and households selected for interviews.
Before conducting the national child labour survey, a pilot survey was conducted from 15th to 18th October 2007.
That pilot survey had the following objectives:
- To test the consistency of questionnaires for adults and children ;
- To test the understanding of questionnaires by enumerators and interviewees;
- To assess the time needed to fill each type of questionnaire;
- To verify the field utilisation of the instructions given in the manual of enumerators;
- To test the overall tool put in place for field data collection and data entry.
After a training of 6 days designed to provide introduction to interview techniques for enumerators, a technical team of fifteen people from different partner institutions were deployed to conduct field data collection.From 16th to 20th December 2007, a technical meeting of the pilot survey team was held to harmonise the questionnaire and finalise the different survey tools.
Data processing
The coding of the 2008-RNCLS questionnaires was carried out from 23rd to 29th, July 2008. Previously, a cross checking of filled questionnaires was done from the first filled questionnaires received and was pursued during the coding.
Data appraisal
A series of data quality tables and graphs are available to review the quality of the data and include the following:
- NUMBER OF ENUMERATION BLOCS AND HOUSEHOLDS SELECTED BY PROVINCE........................................................................................................................................................................11
-DISTRIBUTION OF SURVEYED POPULATION BY SEX AND AGE GROUP. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................14
-DISTRIBUTION OF SURVEYED POPULATION UNDER 18 YEARS OLD BY SEX AND AGE. ....................................................................................................................................................................16 - DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS (IN %) BY PROVINCE ACCORDING TO HOUSEHOLD SIZE ........ ...................................................................................................................................................17
- DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS BY ECONOMIC SECTORS OF HEADS OF HOUSEHOLD..................................................................................................................................................................18
-DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS BY PROVINCES ACCORDING TO WELFARE QUINTILE....................................................................................................................................................................19
-DISTRIBUTION OF CHILDREN AGED 5 - 17 YEARS BY STATUS OF ACTIVITY...........................................................................................................................................................................................22 - ACTIVITY STATUS OF CHILDREN AGED 5 - 17 YEARS BY SEX AND PROVINCE ...................................................................................................................................................................................23
- NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN AGED 7 - 17 YEARS ATTENDING SCHOOL ...................................................................................................................................................................25
- PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN INVOLVED IN HOUSEHOLD CHORES BY AGE, SEX AND PROVINCE ................................................................................................................................................25
-AVERAGE NUMBER OF WORKING HOURS IN HOUSEHOLD CHORES FOR CHILDREN AGED 7-17 YEARS BY SEX, AGE GROUP AND SSHOOL ATTENDANCE...................................29
-NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN IN EMPLOYMENT AGED 5-17 YEARS BY SECTORS OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES AND PROVINCE ……...................................................... 30
-DISTRIBUTION (IN %) OF CHILDREN IN EMPLOYMENT BY SECTORS OF ACTIVITY AND SEX ............................................................................................................................................................30 - NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN IN EMPLOYMENT AGED 5-17 YEARS BY STATUS IN EMPLOYMENT....................................................................................................................31
- HOURS WORKED PER WEEK BY CHILDREN IN EMPLOYMENT BY STATUS OF ACTIVITY, SEX, AGE GROUP AND PROVINCE ...............................................................................................30
-NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILD LABOURERS AGED 5-17 YEARS BY SEX, AGE GROUP AND PROVINCE .....................................................................................................................34
-NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN AGED 5-17 YEARS CARRYING OUT HAZARDOUS WORK BY SEX, AGE GROUP AND PROVINCE ................................................................36
-NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILD LABOURERS AGED 5-17 YEARS BY BRANCHES OF ACTIVITIES, AGE GROUP, AND SEX......................................................................................38 - NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN AGED 5-17 YEARS INVOLVED IN HAZARDOUS WORK BY BRANCH OF ACTIVITIES, AGE GROUP, AND SEX..........................................40
-NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILD LABOURERS BY STATUS IN EMPLOYMENT............................................................................................................................................................................42
-WORKPLACE OF CHILD LABOURERS BY SEX AND AGE GROUP ................................................................................................................................................................................................................44
-WORKING TIME OF CHILD LABOURERS BY SEX, AGE GROUP, AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE............................................................................................................................................................46
-AVERAGE WEEKLY WORKING HOURS OF CHILD LABOURERS BY BRANCH OF ACTIVITY, PROVINCE, SEX AND AGE GROUP ...........................................................................................47
-SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF CHILD LABOURERS IN COMPARISON TO OTHER CHILDREN BY SEX, AGE AND PROVINCE. ..................................................................................................... 49 - AVERAGE WEEKLY WORKING HOURS AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF CHILD LABOURERS BY SEX AND AGE. ..................................................................................................................... 51
-SCHOOL ATTENDANCE RATE OF CHILD LABOURERS INVOLVED IN HOUSEHOLD............................................................................................................................................................................. 52
-MAIN REASONS CITED FOR LOW SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN CHILD LABOURERS. ............................................................................................................................................................................. 54 - PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN AGED 5 - 17 YEARS WHO SUFFERED FROM SICKNESS OR INJURY BY ACTIVITIES STATUS .................................................................................................. 55
- DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLD SIZE BY CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES AND PROVINCE ... .......................................................................................................................................................................56
-DISTRIBUTION (IN %) OF CHILDREN BY ACTIVITIES, HOUSEHOLD LIVING CONDITIONS AND PROVINCE................................................................................................................................... 57
-DISTRIBUTION OF CHILDREN (IN %) BY ACTIVITIES, PRESENCE OF ONE BIOLOGICAL PARENT IN HOUSEHOLD AND PROVINCE...................................................................................... 57
-DISTRIBUTION OF CHILDREN (IN %) BY ACTIVITIES, SEX OF THE HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD AND PROVINCE............................................................................................................................... 58 - DISTRIBUTION (IN %) OF CHILDREN BY ACTIVITIES, MARITAL STATUS OF HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD AND PROVINCE.............................................................................................................. 59
-DISTRIBUTION OF CHILDREN (IN %) BY ACTIVITIES, ACTIVITIES OF HEAD OF HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD AND PROVINCE…………..........................................................................................61 - DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION BY PROVINCE OF RESIDENCE.......................................................................................................................................................................................................15
- DISTRIBUTION OF SURVEYED HOUSEHOLDS BY HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD GENDER ..................................................................................................................................................................17
-DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS BY WELFARE QUINTILES AND SEX OF HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD..................................................................................................................................................20
-TRENDS IN CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES BY AGE ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................24 - NUMBER OF CHILDREN WEEKLY WORKING HOURS BY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE STATUS ...............................................................................................................................................................26
-TRENDS IN RATES OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILDREN IN HOUSEHOLD CHORES ...............................................................................................................................................................28 - HOUSEHOLD CHORES CARRIED OUT BY CHILDREN BY SEX ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................28
-CHILDREN’S SCHOOL ATTENDANCE BY ECONOMIC BRANCHES OF ACTIVITIES..................................................................................................................................................................................50
Data Access
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda | Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning | www.statistics.gov.rw | info@statistics.gov.rw |
The data provided by the survey will be useful not only for national and international stakeholders directly engaged in the fight against child labour but also for public administration, private sector, civil society, researchers and other experts and institutions interested in the issue.
Disclaimer and copyrights
ILO and NISR shall not be liable in any way for any inaccuracy, error or omission, or any consequence inherent in the use of the 2008-RNCLS data.
(c) 2012, National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The General Director | National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda | info@statistics.gov.rw | www.statistics.gov.rw |
Metadata production
DDI-RWA-NISR-RNCLS-2008-v01
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Institute of Statistic of Rwanda | NISR | Ministri of Finance and Economic Planning | Documentation of the study |
2012-05-10
Metadata version
Version 0.1