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In Latin America, approximately 70 million individuals live with a disability. Although global evidence suggests that people with disabilities are one of the poorest groups and present lower employment rates, the evidence for Latin America is still weak. This article aims to contribute to the literature by estimating and analysing the levels of employment opportunity for persons with disabilities in six countries in Latin America (Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Costa Rica). Using household survey data, we measure inequality of opportunities using the Paes de Barros approach and compare the probability distributions of being employed for people with disabilities according to different individual characteristics. This research makes several contributions to the literature. First, it analyses and compares the characteristics of persons with disabilities in six countries of the region. Second, it is the first paper in the region that computes and compares the levels of employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, using the Human Opportunity Index. Third, it analyses which are the main aspects contributing to the levels of employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in each of the countries. The main results of the study reveal that people with disabilities face high levels of inequality of employment opportunity compared with people without disabilities in the six countries. Peru shows the lowest disadvantage, with higher coverage of opportunities for people with disabilities. Colombia and Costa Rica were the countries where this group presents the largest disadvantages to be employed. In addition, women with disabilities and people with disabilities living in rural areas have a lower probability of being employed compared with people without disabilities. These findings reveal that policies in the region aiming to include this group in the labour market have not been effective, and there is a necessity to guarantee the proper labour inclusion of this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers making up this Special Section reveal important findings and begin to fill gaps in existing literature about children's and young people's understanding and developing beliefs about socioeconomic inequality and poverty. We draw on our research experience with children growing up in poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam (Young Lives) from the perspective of sociology of childhood and social anthropology. The commentary discusses the papers in the Special Section and calls for policies and practices that argue for social justice for children and young people in political and economic terms and emphasizes the importance of including children's views and descriptions of their experiences in research about poverty and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing rates of school enrolment have changed childhoods in the global South, so that it is now the norm for children to attend at least some years of primary school. This paper explores the extent to which valuing of children as educational projects and outcomes may be displacing previous valuations of children as contributors to the domestic economy. The paper draws on qualitative interview data from Young Lives, a longitudinal study of children growing up in four developing countries, using a case study approach to explore the experiences of four children in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. The paper suggests that children are balancing expectations for the future with responsibilities to their families in the present, and concludes that the over-valuing of formal qualifications and the under-valuing of forms of work such as agriculture risk being internalised by children, leaving those who do not succeed feeling they are 'a waste'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]