Childhood inequality: How far behind is too far?

This short film follows two 12 year-old boys (Jason, from Italy and Marcell, from the U.S.) as they describe what it's like to be among the most disadvantaged children in their society.

I came across a UNICEF report last week and was struck by how the boys in the accompanying video describe their lives. Their stories could serve as a checklist of the effects of poverty on children. Though this is not the usual housing research included in this blog, the link between poverty and housing problems is clear. Watch Marcell from the U.S. (about 4 minutes into the video) describe living on the edge of homelessness.

The UNICEF report begins with some compelling questions:

Whether in health, in education, or in material well-being, some children will always fall behind the average. The critical question is – how far behind? Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible, not unavoidable but unacceptable, not inequality but inequity?

The study, published by UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, found that children in many wealthy European nations and the United States suffer greater inequality than children in numerous industrialized nations. Report Card 9: The Children Left Behind ranks, for the first time, 24 countries in terms of equality in health, education and material well-being for their children. The report looks at a particular aspect of disparity – bottom-end inequality – and asks how far behind are rich nations allowing their most disadvantaged children to fall. 

A look into the numerous tables provided in the report shows that the United States is underachieving when it comes to the well-being of children. And, there are costs to this disparity. “The heaviest costs,” says the report authors, “are paid by the individual child. But the long list of problems also translates into significant costs for society as a whole. Unnecessary bottom-end inequality prepares a bill which is quickly presented to taxpayers in the form of increased strain on health and hospital services, on remedial schooling, on welfare….”

UNICEF (2010), ‘The Children Left Behind: A league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries’, Innocenti Report Card 9, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.

The Report Card series is designed to monitor and compare the performance of economically advanced countries in securing the rights of their children.