2. What is
child
labour?
Child labour is making a
child work more than the
legal amount of hours
depending on their age. It
is usually forceful and
illegal, by physically,
mentally or socially
harming the child.
3. •Many factory workers
were children.
•They worked long hours
and were often treated
badly by the supervisors or
overseers.
•Sometimes the children
started work as young as
four or five years old.
•A young child did not earn
much, so the owner hired
many children for cheap
labour.
•Most children were forced
to work because they did
not have food or a home, or
the their family could not
care for them.
•The children often worked
in poor conditions since
there was no law or work
regulation at the time.
•Many children worked in
the cotton mills or mines.
• The mill owners often
took in orphans to their
workhouses, they lived at
the mill and were worked
as hard as possible.
•They spent most of their
working hours at the
machines with little time for
fresh air or exercise.
•Other jobs included match
making and chimney
sweeps.
•It took time for the
government to decide that
working children ought to
be protected by laws.
People such as Lord
Shaftesbury and Sir Robert
Peel worked hard to
persuade the public that it
was wrong for children to
suffer health problems and
to miss out on schooling
due to work.
•Child labour in the
industrial revolution
happened in developing
cities, such as London and
in other unbanizations in
Britain.
4. It is
estimated
that there are
218 million
child
labourers
around the
world, who
work long
hours under
harsh,
dangerous
and
exploitative
conditions.
•Globally the
majority of child
labourers come
from the poorer
sections of society.
•Social exclusion
and discrimination,
a result of poverty
and ethnic and
gender biases, are
important factors
that keep children
out of school and
force them to work.
• 73 million
working children
are less than 10
years old.
• Every year,
22,000 children die
in work-related
accidents.
• The largest
number of working
children-122
million-are in the
Asia-Pacific region.
5. Both during the industrial revolution and in
present day, children were:
• Hired to work for low wages.
• Manipulated or beaten.
• Targeted to work if poor or marginalized.
• Treated unfairly and worked long, hard hours.
• Worked in poor conditions or in dangerous work sites.
• Kept from enjoying the lifestyle a child should have.
• Started work at a young age.
• Were not cared for by their factory or business owner.
• Did not receive appropriate breaks during the work day.
6. In the 19th century child labour was mainly in Great Britain, now it
happens in developing countries around the world.
There are different jobs today in which child labour is happening such as
recycling needles. Today there are no chimney sweeps.
During the Industrial Revolution there was no law regulating child
labour. Today there is legislation in many countries around the world,
but this practice still continues.
Back then it was common and expected for children to be working at a
young age. Today it is moral unjust to hire young children and to make
them work under exploitive conditions but this practice continues.
Today there are way more cases of child labour than there were during
the Industrial Revolution.
Today many cases of child labour are from poor parents selling their
children to pay off their debt – bonded labour.
7. Child Labour happens because:
Of poverty in families – the family may send their child to work for more income.
Bonded Labour – when parents send their children to work to pay off their debt.
Children can be manipulated or beaten and do not fight back.
Children don’t form labour unions.
They are obedient and submissive.
Children don’t need to be trained or skilled to perform many of the jobs they are given.
Nimble fingers and small statures could prove a beneficial to some jobs.
There is usually a surplus of children, so employees may force them to work for them.
Poor families cannot invest in education for children, so they are forced to work.
Many children do not have adequate school facilities, so they work. These countries do
not have free education for all, which can prove difficult to sending working children to
school.
Also, children are hired because employers can get away with paying them lower wages.
Child labour is encouraged by buying goods produced or manufactured by children.
8. During the Industrial Revolution, some legislation
was passed in efforts to protect the employment
of children. Some laws included were:
Cotton Factories Regulation Act of 1819 (which set
the minimum working age at 9 and maximum
working hours at 12)
And the Ten Hours Bill of 1847 (which limited
working hours to 10 for children and women).
Later, many countries banned child labour,
including
9. There are many
programs trying to
eliminate child
labour. Some include:
The International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC),
which was created in 1992 to focus
on the progressive elimination of
child labour, which they achieve
through strengthening the
capacity of countries to deal with
the problem and promoting a
worldwide movement to combat
child labour. IPEC currently has
operations in 88 countries.
Free the Children is an organization
that is also working to eliminate
child labour.
The United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is
the biggest human rights treaty in
history. 191 countries (almost every
country in the world) agreed to
recognize the right of children , and
for them to be protected from
economic exploitation and
performing any work that is likely to
be hazardous or to interfere with the
child's education, or to be harmful to
the child's health or physical,
mental, spiritual, moral or social
development.
Things you can do yourself to
try and stop child labour
include:
•Not buying products made by
child labour.
•Supporting programs or donating
money in efforts to make poor families
financially stable so they can care for
their children instead of sending them
away to work.
•Sponsor children
•Buy fair trade products.
•Raise awareness to others about
the issue of child labour.
