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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…