Chapter : 3. Work, Life & Leisure - Cities in Count. World
Marginal Groups
(b) Marginal groups :
With the growth of London, new marginal groups came up -
Crime flourished, about 20, 000 criminals were living in London in the 1870s. Crime became an object of widespread concern. The police were worried about law and order, so the population of criminals was counted, their activities were watched, and their ways of life were investigated. Many of the 'Criminals' were in fact poor people who lived by stealing lead from roofs, food from shops, lumps of coal, and clothes drying on hedges. There were others who were more skilled at their trade, expert at their jobs. They were the cheats and tricksters, pickpockets and petty thieves crowding the streets of London.
(ii) Unemployed women – With technological developments, women gradually lost their industrial jobs, and were forced to work within households. A large number of women used their homes to increase family income by taking in lodgers or through such activities as tailoring, washing or matchbox making. However, in the twentieth century women get employment in wartime industries and offices, they withdrew from domestic service.
(iii) Child labour – Large number of children were pushed into low-paid work, often by their parents. It was only after the passing of the compulsory Elementary Education Act in 1870, and the factory acts beginning from 1902, that children were kept out of industrial work.
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