Child Schooling and Child Work in India: Does Poverty Matter?

This paper explore the differentials of various schooling attendance pattern i.e. never attended, entered into school, dropout rate, repeating , left school two or more years ago and overage schooling among various social groups determined by economic condition of household in India. The wealth index has used to know the child schooling pattern differentials in various economic categories of household. The study finding suggest that the bottom 20 % (poorest) household’s children have more deprived in schooling pattern as never attended, dropout rate and overage schooling compared to middle and richest household children. The States have also a big difference in child schooling attendance pattern (Bihar has highest 39 % never attended compared to lowest for Kerala as 2 percent). The over age schooling among Scheduled Tribe children are more compared to other social class in India. The paper concludes that the various economic categories (poorest, poorer, middle, richer and richest) directly determining the schooling pattern and over age schooling in India.