Child Activity Survey - 2009

The Child Activity Survey for Sri Lanka will be updated since the last exercise conducted in 1999. The Survey is undertaken by the Department of Census and Statistics with technical assistance from ILO (SIMPOC) Geneva. This time, the Eastern Province is also included in the 16,000 sample chosen for the survey.

A Child Activity Survey was last conducted in Sri Lanka in 1999. Therefore, in 2008, the Department of Labour of the Government of Sri Lanka and ILO constituents, identified the necessity to update this survey. As a response to this, the ILO through SIMPOC committed to provide financial and technical assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka through the Department of Census and Statistics, to update this survey – an exercise that spanned 2008/2009. This time however, the survey included the Eastern Province as well. The donor was the United States Department of Labour.

Sample size and the disaggregated levels

In the Child Activity Survey 2008, information was collected to enable classification of children by major age groups (5-11, 12-14, 15-17), according to rural/ urban residency, and by activities engaged in (both economic and/or non-economic activities) broadly classified as:

  • Attending school only
  • Attending school and also engaged in economic activity
  • Attending school and also engaged in non-economic activity
  • Attending school and also engaged in both economic & non-economic activity
  • Engaged in economic activity only
  • Engaged in non-economic activity only
  • Engaged in both economic and non-economic activities
  • Not attending school

Expected survey outputs

  • Survey questionnaire that supports measure of child activity and child labour
  • Survey report which will be discussed at a national workshop and published in English and the local languages
  • Data set of the survey for facilitating further research

The Child Activity Survey 2008 was based on a sample of at least 16,000 households drawn from the entire country (excluding the Northern Province). This survey is expected to inform policy planning and programme interventions by the Government of Sri Lanka, the workers, the employers and other stakeholders who have an interest in child rights and youth employment related issues in general and the issue of child labour in particular. The preliminary findings were presented to selected group of technical experts and professionals within the country. A technical working group headed by the Department of Census and Statistics and convened by the Ministry of Labour Relations and Manpower will finalise the survey results.