National Child Labor Committee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Child labor in Indiana glassworks. (Hine, 1908)
The National Child Labor Committee, or NCLC, is a private, non-profit organization in the United States that serves as a leading proponent for the national child labor reform movement. Its mission is to promote "the rights, awareness, dignity, well-being and education of children and youth as they relate to work and working.”[1]
NCLC, headquartered on Broadway in Manhattan, New York,[2] is administered by a board of directors that is currently chaired by Betsy Brand.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Formation
2 Exposing child labor
3 Lewis Hine and the National Child Labor Committee
4 Fighting against child labor
5 Promoting vocational skills and workplace education
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
[edit]Formation
Edgar Gardner Murphy, an American clergyman and author, is credited with proposing the National Child Labor Committee following a conference between Murphy's Alabama Child Labor Committee, and the New York Child Labor Committee.[4] The conference culminated on April 25, 1904 at a mass meeting held in Carnegie Hall, New York City. At the meeting, both men and women concerned with the plight of working children overwhelmingly supported the formation of the National Child Labor Committee.[5]
The new organization moved swiftly in procuring the support of prominent Americans. In November, 1904, barely half a year after its conception, the NCLC boasted the membership of leading politicians, philanthropists, clergymen, and intellectuals including: former president Grover Cleveland, Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina, and the president of Harvard University, Charles W. Eliot.[6]
In 1907 the NCLC was chartered by an act of Congress with a board of directors originally including prominent Progressive reformers such as Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Edward T. Devine, and Lillian Wald. With the leadership of such prominent reformers, the organization quickly began to attract additional support and moved towards action and advocacy. [7]
[edit]Exposing child labor
Young worker in a Merchants Mill
According to the 1900 US Census, a total of 1,752,187 (about 1 in every 6) children between the ages of five and ten were engaged in “gainful occupations” in the United States. This number represents a fifty percent increase from the 1,118,356 children working for wages in 1880.[8] This trend alarmed Americans who, while supporting the traditional role of children in agriculture, found the idea of American youth laboring for meager wages in industrial factories appalling. From 1909 to 1921 the NCLC capitalized on this moral outrage by making it the focal point of the NCLC campaign against child labor.[9]
[edit]Lewis Hine and the National Child Labor Committee
In 1908 the National Child Labor Committee hired Lewis Wickes Hine, a sociology professor who advocated photography as an educational medium, to document child labor in American industry. Over the next ten years Hine would publish thousands of photographs designed to pull at the nation's heartstrings. [10]
Hine's subjects included both boys and girls employed by mills and factories all over the United States. For the average American, Hine provided an otherwise unavailable window into the somber working conditions facing America's youth. When asked about his work on the subject Hine simply stated that he “wanted to show things that had to be corrected.” Hine's work resulted in a wave of popular support for federal child labor regulations put forward by the NCLC. In effect, Hine's photographs became the face of the National Child Labor Committee, and are among the earliest examples of documentary photography.[11]
Lewis Hine was an influential photo journalist in the years leading up to WWII. It was during those years that the American economy was doing well, and the need for labor was at an all time high. Cheap labor was necessary, and American businesses were not only looking for immigrant workers but also child labor as well. The factory-oriented jobs were very specific, and a child was a perfect candidate for the work that was necessary. Their small hands and energy was beneficial to the assembly line[12]
There was a shift in thinking in the early 1900’s towards an end to child labor. The argument from reformers, as they were called, was that child labor was a sick cycle that was inevitably going to end in a future of poverty for the children in the work force. The long hours were robbing children of not only an education but a childhood as well.[13]
Lewis Hine became an investigative photojournalist for the National Child Labor Committee in the early 1900’s.[14]
Hine took many pictures of workers under the age of 16 in the field. It is his pictures that appear in many books on the history of child labor. His photographs were taken in high risk situations in order to capture the negative side of child labor. His photographs also helped make the National Child Labor Committee investigate the child labor that was taking place in many of America’s factories. “Hine was clever enough to bluff his way into many plants. He searched where he was not welcome, snapped scenes that were meant to be hidden from the public. At times, he was in real danger, risking physical attack when factory managers realized what he was up to…he put his life in the line in order to record a truthful picture of working children in early twentieth-century America” [15]
[edit]Fighting against child labor
Photo of child coal miners in West Virginia by Lewis Hine (1908)
Immediately after its conception in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) began advocating for child labor reform on the state level. A number of state-centered campaigns were organized by the NCLS's two regional leaders, Owen Lovejoy in the northern states and Alexander McKelway in the southern states. Both Lovejoy and McKelway actively organized investigations of child labor conditions and lobbied state legislatures for labor regulations. [16]
Although the NCLC made some strides in the north, by 1907, McKelway and the NCLC had achieved little success in enlisting the support of the southern people and had failed to pass any far-reaching reforms in the south's important mill states. Consequently, the NCLC decided to refocus its state-by-state attack on child labor and endorsed the first national anti-child labor bill, introduced to congress by Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana in 1907. [17] Although the bill was later defeated, it convinced many opponents of child labor that a solution lay in the cooperation and solidarity between the states.
In response, the NCLC called for the establishment of a federal children's bureau that would investigate and report on the circumstances of all American children.[18] In 1912 the NCLC succeeded in passing an act establishing a United States Children's Bureau in the Department of Labor and Department of Commerce. On April 9th President William Taft signed the act into law, and over the next thirty years the Children's Bureau would work closely with the NCLC to promote child labor reforms on both the state and national level.[19]
In 1915, the NCLC, facing the varied success and inherent limitations of it efforts at the state level, decided to move its efforts to the federal level. On its behalf, Pennsylvania Congressman A Mitchell Pamlmer (later Attorney General) introduced a bill to end child labor in most American mines and factories.[20] President Wilson found it constitutionally unsound and after the House voted 232 to 44 in favor on February 15, 1915,[21] he allowed it to die in the Senate. Nevertheless, Arthur Link has called it "a turning point in American constitutional history" because it attempted to establish for the first time "the use of the Commerce Clause commerce power to justify almost any form of federal control over working conditions and wages."[22]
In 1916, Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma and Representative Edward Keating of Colorado introduced the NCLC backed Keating-Owen Act which prohibited shipment in interstate commerce of goods manufactured or processed by child labor.[23] The bill passed by a margin of 337 to 46 in the House and 50 to 12 in the Senate and was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson as the centerpiece of The New Freedom Program. However, in 1918 the law was deemed unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in a five-to-four decision in Hammer v. Dagenhart. The court, although acknowledging child labor as a social evil, felt that the Keating-Owen Act overstepped congress' power to regulate trade. The bill was immediately revised and again deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.[24]
The NCLC then switched its strategy to passing of a federal constitutional amendment. In 1924 Congress passed the Child Labor Amendment with a vote of 297 to 69 (with 64 abstaining) in the house and 61 to 23 (12 abstaining) in the senate. However, by 1932 only six states had voted for ratification, while twenty-four had rejected the measure. Today, the amendment is technically still-pending and has been ratified by a total of twenty-eight states, requiring the ratification of ten more for its incorporation into the Constitution.
In 1938 the National Child Labor Committee threw its support behind the Fair Labor Standards Act which included child labor provisions designed by the NCLC. The act prohibits any interstate commerce of goods produced through oppressive child labor. The act defines “oppressive child labor” as any form of employment for children under age sixteen and any particularly hazardous occupation for children ages sixteen to eighteen. This definition excludes agricultural labor and instances in which the child is employed by his or her guardians.[25] On June 25, 1938, after the approval of Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law; to this day the Fair Labor Standards Act remains the preeminent tool for enforcing and protecting the rights of American children. [26]
For the entirety of World War II, the NCLC kept vigil to make sure that employment shortages caused by the war did not weaken the newly passed and implemented child labor laws, and that children were not drawn back into the mines, mills and streets.[27]
[edit]Promoting vocational skills and workplace education
After WWII, the National Child Labor Committee significantly broadened its scope of involvement by placing a new emphasis on the importance of educating children about the working world as well as advocating programs designed to advance the education and health of migrant farmworkers throughout the America. Today the NCLC's four main goals include: [28]
Educating children about the world of work
Preventing the exploitation of children and youth in the labor market
Improving the health and education opportunities for the children of the migrant farmworkers
Increasing public awareness of the work done day-in and day-out on behalf of the nation's children
During the 1950s and 60's the NCLC advocated and contributed to the various bills including the Manpower Development and Training Act, the Economic Opportunity Act and the Vocational Education Act. [29]
In 1979 NCLC collaborated with the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America to found the National Youth Employment Coalition(NYEC). The NYEC was formed in order to provide support to organizations that help youth become productive private citizens. The NCLC provided the original housing for the NYEC and shared an Executive Director from 1983-1987.[30]
In 1985 the NCLC introduced the Lewis Hine Awards for Service to Children and Youth, which honor unheralded Americans for their work with young people, and give special awards to better-known leaders for their extraordinary efforts. Over the past two decades the awards have developed into an annual event of national notoriety with awards given out to a diverse range of professionals and volunteers.[31] Some past recipients include Gene Bowen of Warwick, New York in 2008 who co-founded Road Recovery, a clinically acclaimed skills program designed for teens recovering from drug addiction[32] and Stacy Maciuk of Brentwood, Tennessee in 2007 who organized a suitcase collection drive to provide foster children with a place to pack their clothes and possessions other than a garbage bag.[33]
From 1991 to today, the National Child Labor Committee created and expanded the Kids and the Power of Work (KAPOW) program. KAPOW exists as a network of private business and elementary school partnerships which introduces students to the world of work though lessons taught by private sector volunteers. Today, KAPOW servers as a model for similar programs, runs operations in over thirty communities from Florida to California, and serves over 50,000 students.[34]
[edit]See also
Timeline of children's rights in the United States
[edit]References
^ "About NCLC". National Child Labor Committee. Retrieved 2008-11-25.[dead link]
^ "Contact NCLC". National Child Labor Committee. Retrieved 2008-11-25.[dead link]
^ "Board of Directors". National Child Labor Committee. Retrieved 2008-11-25.[dead link]
^ "National Child Labor Committee". Encyclopedia of children and Childhood in History and Society. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "History of NCLC". National Child Labor Committee. Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "National Effort to Solve Child Labor Problem" (PDF). New York Times. 1904-11-27. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "National Child Labor Committee". Encyclopedia of children and Childhood in History and Society. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "National Effort to Solve Child Labor Problem" (PDF). New York Times. 1904-11-27. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "National Child Labor Committee". Encyclopedia of children and Childhood in History and Society. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "History of NCLC". National Child Labor Committee. Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "Lewis Wickes Hine". The Getty. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ Freedman, Russell. Kids at Work Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. New York: Clarion Books, 1998. Print.
^ Freedman, Russell. Kids at Work Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. New York: Clarion Books, 1998. Print.
^ Freedman, Russell. Kids at Work Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. New York: Clarion Books, 1998. Print.
^ Freedman, Russell. Kids at Work Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. New York: Clarion Books, 1998. Print.
^ "National Child Labor Committee". Encyclopedia of children and Childhood in History and Society. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "Alexander J. McKelway: Preacher to Progressive". The Journal of Southern History. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "National Child Labor Committee". Encyclopedia of children and Childhood in History and Society. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "History of NCLC". National Child Labor Committee. Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ Stanley Coben, A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician (NY: Columbia University Press, 1963), 884-7
^ New York Times: "Child Labor Bill Passed," February 16, 1916, accessed January 20, 2010
^ Arthur Link, Wilson: The New Freedom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956), 255-7
^ "Child Labor". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "Act of Congress: Keating-Owen Act of 1916". answers.com. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as Amended". US Department of Labor. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "Welcome to The Lazzaro Law Firm, LLC". The Lazzaro Law Firm. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "History of NCLC". National Child Labor Committee. Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "About NCLC". National Child Labor Committee. Retrieved 2008-11-25.[dead link]
^ "History of NCLC". National Child Labor Committee. Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "NYEC History". National Youth Employment Coalition. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "Lewis Hine Awards". National Child Labor Committee. Retrieved 2008-11-25.[dead link]
^ "Who are we?". Road Recovery. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ "Volunteer Stacy Schumaker Maciuk". National Child Labor Committee. Retrieved 2008-11-25.[dead link]
^ "Kids and the Power of Work KAPOW". National Child Labor Committee. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
why childrens cry increses
What is child labour?
Among adults the term “child labour” conjures up a particular image: children chained to looms in dark
mills and sweatshops, as if in a long nightmarish line running from Lancashire in the 1830s right through
to the South Asia of today.
In reality, children do a variety of work in widely divergent conditions. This work takes place along a
continuum, from work that is beneficial, promoting or enhancing a child’s development without
interfering with schooling, recreation and rest to work that is simply destructive or exploitative. There are
vast areas of activity between these two poles.
It is at the most destructive end, where children are used as prostitutes or virtual slaves to repay debts
incurred by their parents or grandparents or as workers in particularly hazardous conditions, that efforts are
focused to stop such abuse.
Who is a child labourer?
The term “child labour” generally refers to any economic activity performed by a person under the age of
15, defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) of the United Nations. On the beneficial side of
the continuum, there is “light work” after school or legitimate apprenticeship opportunities, such as
helping out in the family business or on the family farm. At the destructive end is employment that is
· Preventing effective school attendance;
· Hazardous to the physical and mental health of the child.
Are age limits for work the same in all countries?
Almost everywhere, age limits formally regulate children’s activities — when they can leave school,
marry, vote, be treated as adults by the criminal-justice system, and join the armed forces — and when they
can work.
But age limits differ from activity to activity and from country to country. The legal minimum age for all
work in Egypt, for example, is 12; in the Philippines, 14, in Hong Kong, 15. Peru adopts a variety of 3
standards: the minimum age is 14 in agriculture; 15 in industry; 16 in deep-sea fishing; and 18 for work in
ports and seafaring.
Many countries make a distinction between light and hazardous work, with the minimum age for the
former generally being 12, for the latter usually varying between 16 and 18. ILO conventions adopt this
approach, allowing light work at age 12 or 13, but hazardous work not before 18. The ILO establishes a
general minimum age of 15 years, provided 15 is not less than the age of completion of compulsory
schooling. This is the most widely used yardstick when establishing how many children are currently
working around the world.
Box: Marie
Marie is a seven-year-old from Haiti. She is a restavek — Creole for rester avec — the local term for a type
of child domestic found all over the world, one who has been handed over by a poor rural family to live
with and provide domestic “help” for a usually urban, wealthier family.
She gets up at five in the morning and begins her day by fetching water from a nearby well, balancing the
heavy jug on her head as she returns. She prepares breakfast and serves it to the members of the household.
Then she walks the family’s five-year-old son to school; later, at noon, she brings him home and helps him
change clothes.
Next, she helps prepare and serve the family’s lunch before returning the boy to school.
In between meal times she must buy food in the market and run errands, tend the charcoal fire, sweep the
yard, wash clothes and dishes, clean the kitchen and -- at least once a day -- wash her female boss's feet.
She is given leftovers or cornmeal to eat, has ragged clothes and no shoes and sleeps outdoors or on the
floor.
She is not allowed to bathe in the water she brings to the household. She is regularly beaten with a leather
strap if she is slow to respond to a request or is considered disrespectful. Needless to say, she is not allowed
to attend school.
In many developed countries, it is considered inappropriate or exploitative if a child below a certain age works (excluding household chores, in a family shop, or school-related work).[2] An employer is usually not permitted to hire a child below a certain minimum age. This minimum age depends on the country and the type of work involved. States ratifying the Minimum Age Convention adopted by the International Labor Organization in 1973, have adopted minimum ages varying from 14 to 16. Child labor laws in the United States set the minimum age to work in an establishment without restrictions and without parents' consent at age 16.[3]
Among adults the term “child labour” conjures up a particular image: children chained to looms in dark
mills and sweatshops, as if in a long nightmarish line running from Lancashire in the 1830s right through
to the South Asia of today.
In reality, children do a variety of work in widely divergent conditions. This work takes place along a
continuum, from work that is beneficial, promoting or enhancing a child’s development without
interfering with schooling, recreation and rest to work that is simply destructive or exploitative. There are
vast areas of activity between these two poles.
It is at the most destructive end, where children are used as prostitutes or virtual slaves to repay debts
incurred by their parents or grandparents or as workers in particularly hazardous conditions, that efforts are
focused to stop such abuse.
Who is a child labourer?
The term “child labour” generally refers to any economic activity performed by a person under the age of
15, defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) of the United Nations. On the beneficial side of
the continuum, there is “light work” after school or legitimate apprenticeship opportunities, such as
helping out in the family business or on the family farm. At the destructive end is employment that is
· Preventing effective school attendance;
· Hazardous to the physical and mental health of the child.
Are age limits for work the same in all countries?
Almost everywhere, age limits formally regulate children’s activities — when they can leave school,
marry, vote, be treated as adults by the criminal-justice system, and join the armed forces — and when they
can work.
But age limits differ from activity to activity and from country to country. The legal minimum age for all
work in Egypt, for example, is 12; in the Philippines, 14, in Hong Kong, 15. Peru adopts a variety of 3
standards: the minimum age is 14 in agriculture; 15 in industry; 16 in deep-sea fishing; and 18 for work in
ports and seafaring.
Many countries make a distinction between light and hazardous work, with the minimum age for the
former generally being 12, for the latter usually varying between 16 and 18. ILO conventions adopt this
approach, allowing light work at age 12 or 13, but hazardous work not before 18. The ILO establishes a
general minimum age of 15 years, provided 15 is not less than the age of completion of compulsory
schooling. This is the most widely used yardstick when establishing how many children are currently
working around the world.
Box: Marie
Marie is a seven-year-old from Haiti. She is a restavek — Creole for rester avec — the local term for a type
of child domestic found all over the world, one who has been handed over by a poor rural family to live
with and provide domestic “help” for a usually urban, wealthier family.
She gets up at five in the morning and begins her day by fetching water from a nearby well, balancing the
heavy jug on her head as she returns. She prepares breakfast and serves it to the members of the household.
Then she walks the family’s five-year-old son to school; later, at noon, she brings him home and helps him
change clothes.
Next, she helps prepare and serve the family’s lunch before returning the boy to school.
In between meal times she must buy food in the market and run errands, tend the charcoal fire, sweep the
yard, wash clothes and dishes, clean the kitchen and -- at least once a day -- wash her female boss's feet.
She is given leftovers or cornmeal to eat, has ragged clothes and no shoes and sleeps outdoors or on the
floor.
She is not allowed to bathe in the water she brings to the household. She is regularly beaten with a leather
strap if she is slow to respond to a request or is considered disrespectful. Needless to say, she is not allowed
to attend school.
Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries. Child labour was utilized to varying extents through most of history, but entered public dispute with the advent of universal schooling, with changes in working conditions during the industrial revolution, and with the emergence of the concepts ofworkers' and children's rights.
In many developed countries, it is considered inappropriate or exploitative if a child below a certain age works (excluding household chores, in a family shop, or school-related work).[2] An employer is usually not permitted to hire a child below a certain minimum age. This minimum age depends on the country and the type of work involved. States ratifying the Minimum Age Convention adopted by the International Labor Organization in 1973, have adopted minimum ages varying from 14 to 16. Child labor laws in the United States set the minimum age to work in an establishment without restrictions and without parents' consent at age 16.[3]
The incidence of child labour in the world decreased from 25 to 10 percent between 1960 and 2003, according to the World Bank
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