Health, Education and Labour

A Look into the Linkages Between the Above

Agenda
1. Introduction :Inter-relations
2. Health Education - And how productivity is
affected : Case Study on
3. Child Labour  Health : Case Study on
4. Child Labour  Education : Case Study on
5. Conclusion : Some Solutions
Inter-relation : A Vicious Cycle

Health

Education Labour
Health and Education (1)

Parents Socio Economic

Status : measured by
income and education
Child’s health
A

B Child’s health
Future Education
and Income
 Health and Education (2)
Displays an Intergenerational Transmission

Which leads to what? - Chicken and Egg Effect

Health is however inherently multidimensional and

difficult to summarize in a single index

Seven health indices (smoking, drinking, body mass index,

sleeping, exercise, breakfast, and snacks)

Income : Too intertwined with education to be factored out

Almost Linear Relation – Thus Used as a
Proxy
A1)Case Study – U.S.A.
A2) Worldview : The relation holds
A3) Inference
It follows that parents with higher levels of education
tend to bring up healthier kids.

More
Better Access
Awareness
to Facilities
about Health

Why? Provide more

Plan and
stable and
Have
nurturing
Children
environment
B1) A Surprising Secret to a Long life : Stay
in school

A good education during childhood also leads to good

health later in life

Sick because you can’t go to school, or sick because

you didn’t go? - New studies show that correlation
DOES reflect cause and effect

Dr. Lleras-Muney’s study on income-health disparities

B2)Education leads to Health
Poor Education : can lead to limited job options,
lower incomes greater work-related stress limit a
family's chances to live in a healthy home and
neighbourhood increasing their exposure to
harmful conditions further emotional stresses that
can lead to illness.

Better Education : more likely to have jobs that

provide health insurance coverage to be more
knowledgeable about their health to have more
time to attend to their health. A good education can
lay the foundation for a healthy life.
 Case Study : Indonesia
Literacy Rate and Health in Indonesia
110
105
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
55
50
65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% 95%
Literacy Rate

Life Expectancy at Birth Mortality Rate (Under 5)

 Child Labour and Health(1)
Child Labor
Work that harms children or keeps them from attending
school- Child Labor Public Education Project of the
University of Iowa

Some Characteristics

Violates nation’s minimum age laws

Threatens children’s physical, mental or emotional well-being

Intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt

bondage, forced labor etc.
 Child Labour and Health (2)
Occurrence

International Labor Organization246 million children 5-17

WHO179 million(1 in 8) are trapped in “worst forms”

Majority are in agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining etc

Worldwide Occurrence of Child Labour
 Child Labor and Health(3)
Statistics

Slavery and forced child laborSouth Asia, South-East Asia and West Africa

Prostitution and trafficking of children Girls from Belarus, Russian Federation and
Ukraine are being transported to Hungary, Poland and the Baltic States

AgricultureSri Lanka, developing Asian countries

Mining Developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America

Ceramics and glass factory workDeveloping countries in Asia, Morocco

Deep-sea fishingDeveloping Asian countries, especially in Myanmar, Indonesia, the

Philippines and Thailand

Child domestic workersDeveloping Asian countries, Zimbabwe, Morocco

 Effects of Child Labor on Health(1)
Causes
-Conditions safe for adults may not be safe and healthy
for children due to physical differences

Unskilled & labor-intensive

Inadequate training

Illegal & inappropriate work

Lesser experience

Chemical exposure..e.g. pesticide

Machinery and sharp tools

Unhygienic sanitation
 Effect of Child Labor on Health(2)
Effects

Rapid skeletal growth

Development of organs and tissues
Greater risk of hearing loss
Greater need for food and rest
Higher chemical absorption rates
Low heat tolerance

Psychosocial effects

Long hours of work harm children’s social and educational development

-US adolescents over 20 hours per week -more problem behavior
Traumatic effects caused by slavery, soldiering, prostitution, drug trafficking
 Effect of Child Labor on Health
Statistics

ILO sponsored survey undertaken in Philippines shows that

-60% of economically active children  hazardous working
-19% exposed to biological hazards
-26% chemical and 51%einvironmental
-Of all children workers, 24% suffer work related illness, much higher than that
for adults
 Measures Taken
•In 2006 ILO set a visionary target-to end “worst forms” of child labor by 2016

•Declining in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean

•Increasing in sub-Saharan Africa

 Cycle
Very poor families rely on income from child labor less child labor less
income  less foodworse health less educationlow productivity bad
economy
 Education & Child Labor
Inversely related
Directly related
Child Labor- opportunity cost of education
Developing countries
Practiced modernization since 1670s
Failed- didn’t achieve it’s goal.

Child labor

Global child laborers (International Labor Organization, ILO)

-208 million (2004)
- 215 million (2010)
 Why child labor?
Causes
Developing countries
Considered as ridiculous by social norms.
Poor families may have lower private returns to
education because the opportunity cost is higher.
Poverty positively related with hrs of child labor.
(Luxury axiom)

Parental influence (vicious cycle of receiving little

education – reverse causality is possible)
Ban Child Labor?
Positive correlation
No work more time to invest on education
Opportunity cost of education- working
Higher return on education
Some cases can negatively effect Education
Taking away the rights of children to work may mean
taking away the minimum opportunities for their
economic subsistence.
Long term effect- no money for education leads to no
education at all.
Coexist?
 working children attend school
 Lower quality of education receive
Ghana
Parent income, education and employement
Income shock
Child wage
Household size
Gender
Birth order
School cost and quality
Region of Residence
 Solution
In spite of the “Cycle”, to salvage the solution, we should increase education

standards, enhance health, and fight for child labor

Reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/health/03aging.
html?_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/science/2007010
3_AGING_GRAPHIC.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10860298
Journal of Economic Literature 2009, 47:1, 87-122
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.1.
87
Reference
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