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Child Labor was prevalent...
The children that were poor were forced by economic conditions to work ,as Dickens,with his family in debtor's prison,worked
at age 12 in the blacking factory.1840 only 20% of the children of london had any schooling. The number did rise by 1860,
half of the children bettween 5 and 15 were in some sort school.Many children worked 16 hours a day under dangerous conditions,
as their elders did. There had been parliamentary acts to regulate the work of workhouse children in factories to 12 hour
per day in the early 1802 and 1819, but was ineffective. Iron and coal mines where children began working at the age 5,and
generally died before they were 25. Another act in 1847 limited both adults and children to ten hours of work daily. In urban
areas, industrialization led to a need for cheap labor. Lenient laborlaw made children a prime scource of workers. Also children
worked long hours at the lowest rates. Many laws were passed to eliminate child labor, but those laws weren't payed much attention
until 1833, when the Factory Act was put in place.
Factory Act
- No child workers under 9 years of age.
- Employers must have a medical or age certificate for child worker.
- Children between the ages of 9-13 to work no more than 9 hours a day.
- Children between 13-18 to work no more than 12 hours a day.
- Children are not to work at night.
- Two hours schooling each day for children.
Child Labor TodayChild labor today isn't any better
, the international labor organization has estimated that 250 milllion children between the ages of 5-14 work worldwide. 61%
of these are in asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in Latin America.Not given education or a normal childhood, some children dare
beaten, and reduced to slvery. Similarly, child labor in Dickens time, children work long hours,often exposed to chemicals.`
Families can't send their child to a school, because they often must pay school fees.In some places there is such thing called
Bonded Labor. Bonded Labor takes place when a family recives an advance payment sometimes as little as 15$, to hand a child-boy
or girl over to a employer. The child cannot work off the debt, nor can the family raise `enough money to buy the child back.
Bonded Labor was out lawed by 1956. In the America 70 to 80% of teens have worked for pay at the same time durring their high
school years. Unlike child labor of Dickens time, child labor in America is more like teens earning money for things like
college. 148,000 teens are illegally employed in an average week.
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