Total Pageviews

Monday, March 26, 2012

childrens cry: National Child Labor Committee

childrens cry: National Child Labor Committee: "In 1912, of the first goals of the NCLC was achieved: the establishment of a Childrenâs Bureau in both the U.S. Department of Commerce & th...

Thursday, March 15, 2012

National Child Labor Committee

"In 1912, of the first goals of the NCLC was achieved: the establishment of a Childrenâs Bureau in both the U.S. Department of Commerce & the U.S. Department of Labor. From 1910-1920, while publishing & disseminating the photographs of Lewis Hine, the Committee worked for passage of state & federal legislation to ban most forms of kid labor, & to promote compulsory schooling in all states."

The National Kid Labor Committee was organized on April 25, 1904 at a mass meeting at Carnegie Hall in New York City attended by men & ladies concerned with the plight of working children. They moved quickly to form an organization, to gain the support of prominent Americans & to identify the extent & scope of the issue. In 1907 the NCLC was chartered by an Act of Congress, & immediately began to garner support & move towards action & advocacy. of the first steps took place in early 1908 with the hiring of a tailorâs son from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, a budding anthropologist & photographer, Lewis Wickes Hine. His photographs would awaken the consciousness of the nation, & change the reality of life for millions of impoverished, undereducated children."

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.