Child labour represents a fundamental abuse of child rights and a violation of international as well as national laws. It is often performed at the cost of education which has detrimental effect on the accumulation of human capital. Moreover, there is a complete dearth of research in India which utilizes the large scale sample survey and explores the issue of child work and school attendance at a greater depth. In this regard India s third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-III) conducted in 2005-06 has collected for the very first time an extensive data on child work which has been utilized...