The Epidemic Of Child Labour

From quitting school and getting paid a minimum of 25¢ to continuing school and getting paid a minimum of $4.25. During the Industrial Revolution, children would seek work in order to provide for their families and leave school doing so. History.com claims that “In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16.” Many employers would hire children because they were easier to manage and ultimately could be paid less than adults. Today there are many restrictions on child labor that provide a safe work environment and rights for the youth. Labor conditions have changed since the Industrial Revolution thanks to reform movements and have paved the way for the safer modern day conditions.

Child labor during the industrial revolution was difficult for the kids. Children had to work hard in factories and mines. They didn’t get to go to school they had to work instead. They didn’t have the life of normal kids.

Children were expected to work and undertake responsibilities at a very young age. However child labor was brought to new extremes during the Industrial revolution. Children were put to work in factories and in such working conditions that would revolt adults today. They were forced to work long hours and would only be paid a small amount. They couldn’t afford to not work because of the need to support their families. They would be forced to forgo an education to instead venture inside the depths of mines or the vastness of a factory. As the United States modernized and technology blossomed child labor began to decline throughout the country. Due to educational reforms and activist groups child labor has virtually been eliminated within our borders. This has been a remarkable change in our history. We went from a country where children were forced to work and abandon education to a country focused on the growth and education of our children. Laws were created to prevent companies and organizations taking advantage of child labor. One of theses was “The Fair Labor Standers Act of 1938”, which set national minimum wage and maximum hours worked in interstate commerce and placed limitations on child labor. Also children under the age of sixteen were prohibited in manufacturing and mining. Another factor that contributed to the decline of child labor in the United States was the increase of the number of years

In the early twentieth century it was very common for minors to work extremely long hours in industrial practices. It was not for nothing though, many families’ income depended on that earned by their children. Because of this, the public concern about the results this kind of work produced for children began to increase tremendously. Although there were many people that were supporters of working minors, the advocates for child labor laws presented that minors who worked those sixty hour weeks were, in fact, not able to get a proper education and live a necessary childhood. The most important worry was the physical risk as children working in industries had large accident rates. As a result, some states passed laws restricting child labor,

Factories where children worked housed some menacing machines, working fast enough to easily dismantle small limbs (Eastern Illinois University, 2014). The young workers breathed in dangerous chemicals which often led to illnesses and disease (Eastern Illinois University, 2014). In addition, children were paid very low wages considering their working hours (Burnette, 2008). This can be seen in Figure 3.1 (Burnette, 2008). The tough labour can be seen through stories of child labour. For example, an eleven year old girl, Ellison Jack, who worked in a mine during the Industrial Revolution, had to push a tub, which weighed over 200kg, on twenty journeys every day and would be whipped if she slackened off (History Learning Site, 2014). "In the absence of regulation, the evil tends to increase,” said Sidney Webb, who was a British socialist, about child labour (Nardinelli, 1980). The enormous amount of child labour proves that the Industrial Revolution was built on

The 20th century was a difficult time for most families, who barely made enough to survive no matter how hard they worked. Since many places would hire children who worked for cheap, child labor was an easy option to make more money. In today's society, only 14 to 16 year olds may be employed to work. After going through the images and descriptions on the website, I can't help but to feel incredibly horrified. If my younger brother and sister had to go through what the 20th century children had to go through, I'm too afraid on how I'll react.

Therefore, some employers completely controlled families. (Staff H. , 2009) During the Industrial Revolution, according American history, child labour reached a new level. Because of the industrial revolution many machines were created. New machines lead to workers in dangerous factory conditions. Some of the workers would end up being children, for they would work long hours for a very small amount of money. It was believe that children were very usual as workers, because of their small size, which lead to them being able to move in small spaces. Another reason why child labour was useful, was because children were obedient and were paid much less than adults. (Staff H. , 2009) Near the nineteenth century was when labour organizers pursued to limit the child labour and improve the conditions that the workers were under. When the Great Depression struck the American public opinion wanted all the jobs to go to adults instead of

The sweat dripped from the five year old’s face as he sent the parts down the assembly line. During the Industrial Revolution many children were forced to work in order to support their family because of the unstable economy. The hardships that these children suffered through ruined their childhood. In the factories, the working conditions for the children were terrible, they had working long hours for such little pay for their families. In the United States today, this problem is mostly resolved due to many bills that went through Congress, but in many third world countries child labor still exists. Although it was a very cheap solution for large companies, it destroys the life of children in an unethical manner.

The industrial revolution was one of the hardest times in American history. With these hard times brought pollution, poverty, and prejudice. Along with these corruption's brought one of the darkest sides of the industrial revolution and America's past, child labor. The industrial revolution brought many social evils. One of possibly the most worse of the social issues happens to be the unfair treatment of children in labor. Child Labor was a scandal of Child Labor is the employment of children working under the age of physical maturity.. Children would start work in mills, coal mines, and factories as young as 5 years old, to 18 years of age. An average child would work 18 hour days. Work days typically ran from dawn to sunset, and winter usually

The problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge before the nation. Government has been taking various pro-active measures to tackle this problem. However, considering the magnitude and extent of the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy, it requires concerted efforts from all society to make a dent in the problem.

It is estimated that over 246 million kids between the ages of 5 and 15 around the world are labouring every day for long hours. Most of these children work on farms that produce consumer products such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, rubber and other crops.

A huge issue with child labor was the children’s health. Children’s health and safety is far different from adults, hence some working conditions are not the best for children to be in. Working in bad conditions can cause a great risk of injuries and possibly even long-term effects. Children tend to have more injuries than adults in poor working conditions due to having little knowledge on how to work the machines and very little skills with labor-intensive jobs. These working conditions even caused rapid skeletal growth, greater risk of hearing loss, lower heat tolerance, greater need for food and rest, and many more. Children were forced to work for long hours on a regular basis. As children work late hours under poor conditions, their health tends to decrease, causing their families to worry. In some cases, the children die depending on how hard they are forced to work, which causes a constant concern for their parents. A Child’s health is very important to parents and to know you’re your child can possibly die from being overworked, is a parent’s worst fear. Also, some parents have no choice but to give their

Poverty is the main reason for child labour. Poor households need the money, which their children can earn. Children contribute to 20 – 25 % of family income. It is obvious that the survival of certain families depends on the children’s earnings.

‘Forms of child labor, including indentured servitude and child slavery, have existed throughout American history.’ (http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html) During the years following the Civil War, (http://americanhistory.about.com/od/industrialrev/a/indrevoverview.htm) the American working class made an abrupt transition away from farm work and home chores. Workers shifted over to the ever-growing factory production industry. Many factory production jobs became available following the year 1820, mid way through Industrial Revolution. This era of mechanic and industrial growth created new social divides in American society, forming new castes of entrepreneurs and splitting the population into the middle and the lower class (http://www.eiu.edu/eiutps/childhood.php). Many families relocated from rural neighbourhoods to seek employment. American citizens from the suburbs traveled to nearby cities, searching for a better life and employment. In the newly established industrial empire the jobs available often required long hours working in dangerous conditions. The work offered was in exchange for little pay– families would often have no choice but to accept the conditions. In the cases of unfavorable lines of work, children were often proffered. Children were favored because of their small stature, ability for nimble precise work, and

After placing their entire existence in peril, by giving up educational rights, risking their health, and losing their childhood these child earn as little as 0.35cents a day. Mikhail Bakunin once said that "Children do not constitute anyones property: they are neither the property of their parents, nor of the society. They belong only to their own future freedom." Unfortunately for the children of India they will forever be slaves to these rock mines or sewing industries. This is all they know. They have been deprived for so long of education, health and their own childhood that they forgot about their own future freedom like Mikhail Bakunin says. Child labor in India should be called child murder, murder of the child’s childhood, murder of the child’s health and most importantly murder of the child’s