Employmentweb_low

EmploymEnt, Work, And hEAlth InEquAlItIEs - a global perspective
common practice among the indian middle class, even among
physicians (Mishra & arora, 2007). child prostitution is found
worldwide, is regarded as a gross violation of human rights and
dignity and has been estimated as affecting 10 million individuals,
particularly in asia (Willis & levy, 2002). children involved with
prostitution are exposed to mental and physical abuse and are at
risk of drug addiction, aids and many sexually transmitted
diseases, as well as of premature and undesired pregnancy
(fassa et al., 2000; unicef, 1997 cited in fassa, 2003). This
problem affects the health potential that every person has
when she is born and whose deterioration needs to be avoided
throughout the lifespan. however, since growth is known to be
related with nutrition at an early age, and child labour is
closely associated with poverty, teasing out these two factors
from correlations is still a challenge for epidemiologists.
hawamdeh and spencer (2002) argue that child labour may
have an unfavourable effect on ones’ physiological capital, as
measured by its impact on growth. To minimise the
confounding impact of the social-economic variable in their
study, the authors selected two groups of boys according to
their socio-economic class. They selected 135 Jordanian
working boys and 405 non-working schoolboys living in the
same geographic region and between the ages of 10-16 years.
Their study found that regardless of socio-economic
circumstances, child labour among Jordanian boys increases
Girl working in mangroves (El salvador). the risk of stunting and wasting. for instance, they
source: antonio rosa (2002)
encountered a significant clinical difference between the 2
groups: 5.3 cm in height and 250 g in weight for those aged 14
years. The risks of growth impairment faced by working boys
also intensify their risk of adverse health outcomes in adulthood
(hawamdeh & spencer, 2002; 2003).
a couple of studies in Brazil addressed the association
between child labour and self-perceived health at adulthood, and
they consistently observed that individuals who started work
under 10 years (Kassouf, Mckee, & Mossialos, 2001) or 14 years of
age (dantas, 2005) were more likely to report poor self-perceived
health than those who did not have antecedents of child labour.
however, huk-Wieliczuk (2005), studying rural children in Poland,
did not find a correlation between heavy workload and poor selfreported
health. This inconsistency might be explained by
differences in the age range across the population surveyed.
Kassouf et al. (2001) canvassed former child labourers aged 18-65
while huk-Wieliczuk (2005) interviewed children who were
246