11 Child Labor Use in Forest Resources Collection and Its Implications on Fertility Preferences in Nepal

Child labor has been utilized to perform various economic activities throughout the human civilization. Basically, poverty is the main cause of child labor; however, in some cases it can be just a traditional family practice. There are varieties of works in which children are involved where they should not be; however, this chapter primarily unveils the social reality of child labor use in forest resources collection and its implication on population growth. Using data from Nepal, we provide evidence that child labor in environmental resources collection contributes to a larger family size desire among individuals. Inequality of gender per se is not an independent predictor of individual fertility attitudes. The gender disaggregated analysis suggests that children’s participation differentially shapes fertility attitudes among men and women depending upon the types of activities in which children participate. While children’s contribution to firewood collection is important among men, their participation in fodder collection is important among women in shaping larger family size. The findings suggest a need for a gender and activity disaggregated focus to address high fertility problems in developing countries like Nepal.