Snakes and Ladders - ERU Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

Overall, there are other both tangible and intangible effects of poverty on the lives of children.
- On the overall health status of children. Lack of easy access to water affects the overall
hygiene of children. Even when poor families have access to safe water, storing practices
and usage affects quality of the water they drink.
- On the ability of a child to be regular in school and / or continue and complete primary
education. Seasonal migration / work during peak seasons / sibling care / survival chores,
all have a bearing on this.
- Intensity of poverty (acute poverty) influences parental choice of how many children go
to school and up to what level (beyond primary). The same household may send a few to
school and retain some at home. (It is here that alternatives for communities to enable
such children to catch up and continue school become important.)
- The recognition of the value of education by poor families and decision to remove
children from full time work and send them to school has not in any significant way
reduced the work burden of children. Children continue to work before and after school
and during peak seasons. A new pattern is also emerging - more children report that they
work during holidays and weekends. This situation is more acute in urban areas where
many children work as domestic labour. We may need to re-examine the issue of child
work from a different perspective, one that recognises the reality on the ground. In
particular, the impact this kind of work has on learning outcomes needs to be explored.
We cannot afford to take an uncomplicated position of work or schooling since the
situation on the ground is far more complex and makes it critical to distinguish between
child labour and child work.
- Girl children, especially those who are higher in birth order seem to be the biggest losers.
They are burdened with the drudgery of household chores and often lose out on
completion of primary schooling.
Intermeshing poverty and social status
Economic explanations per se rarely explain persistent bottlenecks in attaining universal primary
education. The reality is that economic factors are inextricably entwined with social variables in
determining children’s ability to both access and continue in schools, often making it difficult to
distinguish between the two. The in-depth study of elementary education of the poorest and other
deprived groups by Jha and Jhingran (2002) provides perhaps one of the more exhaustive
Educational Resource Unit Page 74 April 2003