How child labor made a "race of pygmies"

http://www.psychologytoday.com/em/123185

by Gwen Dewar, Ph.D.
April 23, 2013

People living in 19th century England were much shorter than they are today. In part, that’s because they were relatively malnourished.

But there was much more going on. Talk about “average heights” obscures a tremendous difference between rich and poor.

As anthropologist and growth expert Barry Bogin notes, even kids growing in poverty in the least developed nations of the modern world are taller than one historical group:

In 1833, Edwin Chadwick published his Report of the Commissioners on the employment of children in factories.

From an early age, these children worked 12-16 hour days, 6 days a week. They were beaten for being late or inattentive.

Many children were crippled by the unnatural postures they had to adopt, sickened by toxic industrial materials, injured or killed in horrible accidents.

By the time they were 18.5 years old, these young English people averaged 62 inches (5’2″ or 158 cm) in height.

As Bogin points out, the only populations around today with lower averages are the naturally short-statured peoples of Central Africa — people like the Baka, Efe, or Twa.

Today we know that very severe, chronic stress can have a devastating impact on growth. During the 19th century, reformers and people of conscience guessed at it.

-----

in 19th century England, reformers made progress:

• In 1833, the Factory Regulation Act prohibited textile factories from employing children under the age of 9, and limited the working hours of older children (aged 9-12) to 8 hours a day. Night shifts for children were outlawed, and child workers over the age of twelve could not be required to work more than 48 hours per week.

• Subsequent laws applied to other industries as well, and required accidental deaths to be investigated.

• By 1878, English children under the age of 10 were required to attend school, not work.

-----

If a given culture denies basic rights to certain social groups — if it denies children an education, permits slavery, or forces children into marriage, sexual abuse and dangerous pregnancies — they say we can’t judge. Every group defines its own rules.

As an anthropologist, I appreciate how much misery has been caused by people who impose their own cultural ideals on others. But cultural relativism doesn’t require extreme moral relativism. I believe that people everywhere should enjoy certain basic rights. I am thankful for those people who have fought for them in the past -- and who still fight for them today.

-----

Harsh, unsafe, and demeaning labor conditions still exist for some of the world’s children. Donations to UNICEF help fight a number of threats to child welfare, including child labor and child trafficking. And in a recent paper analyzing the effectiveness of foreign aid programs, UNICEF was ranked as having above-average practices. You can make a donation here.