Poverty has a terrible impact on a child’s life in several ways. It can limit their potentiality and School is one of the first areas of a child’s life to suffer an impact of poverty on education, health, and child labor.
Impact on Education
One of the first areas of a child’s life to suffer an impact is schooling. Poverty hurts enrolment and frequently causes dropouts without any re-enrollment. In 2016, there were 46.24 million children who did not attend school because many people saw it as a luxury.
When compared to daily and minimum earnings, it is given much less consideration. Children from low-income homes frequently lack the drive and social skills needed to succeed in school.
The majority of low-income households don’t understand the value of education and include their kids in daily chores. Some of them make an effort to enroll their kids in school, but they are unable to pay for a proper education or even help their kids.
Impact on Health
Every third kid under the age of five in India is stunted or extremely malnourished, according to the NFHS 4 2016 report. This is also a result of a lack of understanding that causes serious health problems at a young age.
Numerous kids’ conditions deteriorate as a result of incomplete vaccines, inadequate nutrition, etc. In this domain, poverty’s effects on healthcare are also evident. Adolescent girls too have their own issues regarding menstrual health and reproductive health which might be negatively affected due to poverty.
Child Labour
Child labour is another product of the state of poverty in this country. The 2011 Census found that over 10 million youngsters (under the age of 14) were working in India. Many families send their kids off to perform odd jobs.
This is preferred over education in order to earn some additional money to feed the many empty tummies whether in restaurants, stores, factories, or other illicit enterprises. On a mental, physical, and emotional level, working is horrible for kids throughout their early years and deprives them of realizing their full potential.