Surveying child labour through households: sampling issues and strategies

This paper addresses sampling issues arising in the context of household-based child labour surveys. It presents some of the sampling strategies elaborated in the ILO book Sampling for Household-based Surveys of Child Labour (Verma, 2008). A typology of surveys of child labour is identified, and the fundamental distinction between two types with very different objectives – termed ‘child labour surveys’ and ‘labouring children surveys’, respectively – is clarified and emphasised. Following a broad survey of national practices in conducting surveys of child labour, linkages between different types of surveys and some specific sampling techniques are explained.