Sociological aspects of child labour

Sociological aspects of child labour were studied in 100 children working in the Madras city. Over half of these belonged to the age group of 13 and 14. Seventy three percent were males and 55 percent belonged to the poor socio economic strata. In 46 percent cases, there was under employment or unemployment in the families. Forty percent of the fathers were alcoholics. Non schooling of children was 14 percent and drop outs from school were 64 percent. Reasons for employment of these children were parental incapacitation, discontinuation of education because of bad performance at school, alcoholic fathers and poverty. Forty five percent of these children worked for more than 8 h. Their income was rupees 15 and less per month in 91 percent. Most of them were working in unorganised sectors.     

A longitudinal study of maternal labour force participation and child academic achievement

The associations between maternal labour force participation and child academic achievement were examined in a birth cohort of New Zealand children who have been studied from birth to age 18. The results of this analysis suggested the presence of small associations between the extent of maternal labour force participation and scores on standardised tests of word recognition, reading comprehension, and mathematical reasoning. Similar associations were found between maternal labour force participation and success in school leaving examinations. These associations arose predominantly because children whose mothers worked had better performance than children whose mothers who had not worked in paid employment. However, patterns of maternal labour force participation were also related to a series of family and child factors including: maternal education, family socioeconomic status, race, birth order, family composition, early mother-child interaction, and child IQ. Adjustment for these factors reduced associations between maternal labour force participation and academic achievement to the point of practical and statistical nonsignificance. These results were found to be robust and similar conclusions were found for (1) a range of measures of maternal labour force participation, and (2) subgroups of the cohort defined by gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or family type.     

Ophthalmomyiasis in a child.

A 4-year-old child presented with a 3-week history of left eye swelling. The periorbital inflammation was a result of a larva of the human botfly, Dermatobia hominis. Surgical extraction of the larva was curative.     

Intradural lipoma in a child.

We report the case of a 5-year-old Nigerian boy in whom conus medullaris and cauda enquina compression was due to an intradural lipoma, a rare tumour of the spinal canal in the tropics. The literature on the subject is briefly reviewed and the differential diagnoses are discussed. The occurrence of the lesion in this child, without other features of spinal dysraphism, is noteworthy.     

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia in a child.

We describe a case of thrombocytopenia and deep venous thrombosis in a boy who received heparin to maintain patency of a central venous catheter. Measurement of the release of serotonin labeled with carbon 14 confirmed the presence of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Children receiving heparin therapy should be monitored for the possibility of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.     

Renal oncocytoma in a child.

Oncocytoma is an exceptionally rare renal tumor in children. We report on one case of a twelve-year-old girl treated by nephrectomy.