Child Labor: Action-Research-Innovation in South and Southeastern Asia (CLARISSA) was a five-year, Action Research program that generated evidence-informed, innovative solutions by children to avoid hazardous, exploitative labor in Bangladesh and Nepal. CLARISSA’s work in Bangladesh focused on Dhaka slum neighborhoods and communities linked to leather supply chains and included a highly innovative social protection intervention to reduce children’s involvement in hazardous work and the worst forms of child labor.
Researchers: Aktar, Taslima; Mamun, Saklain Al; Sultan, Maheen; Jahan, Nusrat
Timeline: 2021-2023
Status: Completed
Contact: Saklain Al Mamun; saklain.mamun@bracu.ac.bd
Context:
In Bangladesh CLARISSA research focused on WFCL in the leather sector. Geographically we focused on three locations: Hazaribagh which is the traditional center of leather production in the center of Dhaka; Hemayetpur, which is where formal leather processing was relocated to in 2017, and where there is a growing informal economy springing up; and Bhairab which is the heart of the leather shoe trade, characterized by some forms of modern slavery, where children work unpaid, and centered almost entirely on domestic markets.
Objective:
The CLARISSA intervention aims to increase the capacities of individuals, families, and community groups to manage economic shocks, build alternative livelihoods, and improve well-being, which, in turn, are expected to reduce child labor.
Methodology:
Periodic qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews (IDIs), focus group discussions (FGDs), and key informant interviews (KIIs) in three rounds between December 2022 and December 2023. Thirty households were selected for in-depth exploration with children and their parents, including households that are vulnerable, female-headed, and have working and school-going children. In the third round, the BIGD team conducted three IDIs with CMs. A total of 22 FGDs were conducted in three rounds with various stakeholders (e.g., teenage working boys, or parents). KIIs targeted 25 influential or knowledgeable community members, such as schoolteachers, NGO workers, and employers in the community like leather businessmen. The use of diverse research tools helped us triangulate the findings and elicit a nuanced perspective on children’s work, “exploitation,” and the effectiveness of the intervention.
Every four months, we hosted reflection workshops between the research, CM, and data collection teams. These workshops enabled an ongoing assessment of the intervention, its successes, failures, and impact on participating households, charting the causal pathways.
Findings and Recommendations:
In communities like North Gojmohol, characterized by poverty and deep vulnerabilities, the combination of unconditional cash and relational support can have a significant positive impact—reducing poverty and deprivation, supporting livelihood diversification, and increasing shock resilience. The intervention offered a buffer against food insecurity and supported school re-entry, whilst also enhancing people’s sense of agency and capability in the face of life’s difficulties.
While cash transfer was the central contributing factor, this evaluation also attests to the power of participatory community support—what we have termed relational, needs-based community organizing. Data show that CMs operated like a human last mile, connecting residents to services and opportunities, facilitating individual and shared acts of self-improvement, and helping them maximize the benefits of the unconditional cash.
The CLARISSA cash-plus intervention offers an important lesson for policymakers: the economic reality of children cannot be ignored if reducing dropout and child labor is an objective. Unconditional cash transfers can be a potential solution, and need-based relational support can enhance the impact of cash transfers.
