According to UNICEF, generally, poverty is understood as income poverty and is based on data collected at the household level. While important, for children such measures are far from sufficient, and can mask the life-changing deprivations to their rights they may be experiencing: A certain income level does not necessarily mean a household has all it needs to provide what a child needs for a good start in life, nor that children are prioritized in household expenditures. Indeed, it may be the labor of children themselves that is putting a household above the poverty line.
While an adult may become poor temporarily, falling into poverty in childhood can last a lifetime, because rarely does a child get a second chance to learn and grow healthy. As such, measuring child poverty needs to rather focus on whether children face deprivations of a range of their rights such as health, education, nutrition, participation, and protection from harm, exploitation, and discrimination.
