This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows that childhood poverty, poor living conditions and gender can have lasting impacts on employment opportunities and earnings in India. Researchers discovered that young adults from wealthier, healthier and more stable backgrounds earned more, while those who experienced poverty or repeated adversity in childhood were more likely to be working but often in lower-paid jobs.
The study, "Unequal from the Start? Children's Life Histories and Their Employment Outcomes in India," will be published in Oxford Development Studies. The findings suggest that employment alone is not enough to overcome childhood disadvantage.
The research, led jointly by UEA and the University of Birmingham, analyzed data from the Young Lives study, a long-running project that has followed more than 1,000 children growing up in India from age 8 to 22. Drawing on five waves of survey data collected between 2002 and 2016, the researchers examined how childhood living conditions, health and exposure to major family and economic setbacks, or "shocks," shaped employment outcomes at age 22. Factors studied included access to electricity, clean water, sanitation and cooking fuel, alongside experiences such as bereavement, illness, parental separation and loss of household income.
The researchers identified four broad childhood pathways, ranging from a "Better-off" group with stable living conditions and few shocks to a "Poorest but stable" group that experienced persistent poverty but relatively stable family circumstances. Nicholas Vasilakos, a professor at UEA's Norwich Business School, said, "Our findings show that childhood circumstances matter long after childhood has ended. Living conditions, health and exposure to family and economic shocks all play a role in shaping employment opportunities and earnings in early adulthood.
"What happens during childhood can create advantages or disadvantages that build up over time. By age 22, we can already see substantial differences in employment and earnings linked to those early-life experiences." One of the study's main findings was that young people from poorer backgrounds were often more likely to be employed by age 22 but earned significantly less than their more advantaged peers. Young people from the "Poorest but stable" group were the most likely to be employed, with an employment rate of 76.4%, compared with 39.5% among those in the "Better-off" group.
However, the picture was reversed when it came to earnings. Young adults from the most advantaged backgrounds earned the highest wages, averaging around 467 rupees per day, compared with around 330 rupees per day among the less advantaged groups. Vasilakos said, "One of the most striking findings was that young people from poorer backgrounds were often more likely to be working, but that employment did not necessarily protect them from disadvantage.
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