Investigate the Occurrence of Injuries to Rural Child Labor in Agricultural Activities in Mahidasht County

This study sought to investigate the happening of injuries to rural child labor in agricultural activities in Mahidasht County. The study population comprised of 1. Children 5 to 18 years (N=934); 2. The parents of working children; and 3. The specialist who is familiar with rural work environment. In the first group (children)¡ a sample of 272 members were selected using Crecy and Morgan (1970) sampling table and the stratified by random sampling method with proportional allocation. In the second group (parents)¡ due to the lack of accurate statistics about the parents¡ purposeful sampling was used. In the third group (experts) the enumeration was done. Data were collected through structured questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by an expert’s panel and its reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha (α=0.88). The data were analyzed in SPSS software¡ version 18. The results showed that all the three communities complained primarily of physical injuries (skin disease¡ back pain¡ and knee disorders) followed by psychological injuries (tension and rough temperament¡ and creative destruction)¡ socio-cultural injuries (continuance of child labor towards next generations¡ and learning bad language) and economical injuries (comprised of increased cost of child education¡ and increased health cost). Although the phenomenon of child labor cannot be eliminated in the rural environment¡ but observingergonomic principles in the workplace can substantially reduce the damage caused to children.