INTRODUCTION

The international as well as national world is actively aware

regarding the condition of the children who are working as the child
labour in several industry.
To cultivate an awareness regarding the increasing number of child
labour in India which is becoming a major challenge regarding the
social structure of the society.
Where there are several norms and made by the central
government to prevent the implementation of the children below the
age of 14 year.
The people should be well aware of the laws implemented and
enforced by the government in 2006.
Child labour is an very big problem for the society like India and
due measure and awareness must be conducted
The report creates a clear picture regarding the position of the
industrial society with the context of India.
The frst general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were
passed in Britain in the frst half of the 19th century. Children
1
younger than nine were not allowed to work and the work day of
youth under the age of 18 was limited to twelve hours.
A child (plural: children) is a human between the stages of birth
and puberty. The legal defnition of "child" generally refers to a
minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of
majority. "Child" may also describe a relationship with a parent or
authority fgure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or
religion; it can also signify being strongly afected by a specifc time,
place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the
Sixties
Child labour (U.S. child labor) 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 of
workers' and children's rights.
2
In many developed countries, it is considered inappropriate or
exploitative if a child below a certain age works (excluding
household chores or school-related work).
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 Labour 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.
The incidence of child labour in the world decreased from 25 to 10
percent between 1960 and 2003, according to the World Bank.
During the Industrial Revolution, children as young as four were
employed in production factories with dangerous, and often fatal,
working conditions. Based on this understanding of the use of
children as labourers, it is now considered by wealthy countries to
be a human rights violation, and is outlawed, while some poorer
countries may allow or tolerate child labour.
3
The Victorian era became notorious for employing young children in
factories and mines and as chimney sweeps. Child labour played an
important role in the Industrial Revolution from its outset, often
brought about by economic hardship, Charles Dickens for example
worked at the age of 12 in a blacking factory, with his family in
debtor's prison. The children of the poor were expected to help
towards the family budget, often working long hours in dangerous
jobs and low wages. In England and Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of
the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were described as
children.
Two girls protesting child labour (by calling it child slavery) in the 1909 New
York City Labor Day parade.
4
Agile boys were employed by the chimney sweeps; small children
were employed to scramble under machinery to retrieve cotton
bobbins; and children were also employed to work in coal mines to
crawl through tunnels too narrow and low for adults. Children also
worked as errand boys, crossing sweepers, shoe blacks, or selling
matches, fowers and other cheap goods. Some children undertook
work as apprentices to respectable trades, such as building or as
domestic servants (there were over 120,000 domestic servants in
London in the mid 18th Century). Working hours were long:
builders worked 64 hours a week in summer and 52 in winter,
while domestic servants worked 80 hour weeks.
Bertrand Russell wrote that:
The industrial revolution caused unspeakable misery both in
England and in America. ... In the Lancashire cotton mills (from
which Marx and Engels derived their livelihood), children worked
from 12 to 16 hours a day; they often began working at the age of
six or seven. Children had to be beaten to keep them from falling
asleep while at work; in spite of this, many failed to keep awake and
were mutilated or killed. Parents had to submit to the infiction of
5
these atrocities upon their children, because they themselves were
in a desperate plight. Craftsmen had been thrown out of work by
the machines; rural labourers were compelled to migrate to the
towns by the Enclosure Acts, which used Parliament to make
landowners richer by making peasants destitute; trade unions were
illegal until 1824; the government employed agents provocateurs to
try to get revolutionary sentiments out of wage-earners, who were
then deported or hanged. Such was the frst efect of machinery in
England.
A high number of children also worked as prostitutes. Children as
young as three were put to work. In coal mines children began work
at the age of fve and generally died before the age of 25. Many
children (and adults) worked 16 hour days. As early as 1802 and
1819 Factory Acts were passed to regulate the working hours of
workhouse children in factories and cotton mills to 12 hours per
day. These acts were largely inefective and after radical agitation,
by for example the "Short Time Committees" in 1831, a Royal
Commission recommended in 1833 that children aged 1118
should work a maximum of 12 hours per day, children aged 911 a
6
maximum of eight hours, and children under the age of nine were
no longer permitted to work. This act however only applied to the
textile industry, and further agitation led to another act in 1847
limiting both adults and children to 10 hour working days.
By 1900, there were 1.7 million child labourers reported in
American industry under the age of ffteen.
[10]
The number of
children under the age of 15 who worked in industrial jobs for
wages climbed to 2 million in 1910.
7
Present day
A young boy recycling garbage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2006
Child labour is still common in some parts of the world, it can be
factory work, mining, prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping
in the parents' business, having one's own small business (for
example selling food), or doing odd jobs. Some children work as
guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business
for shops and restaurants (where they may also work as waiters).
Other children are forced to do tedious and repetitive jobs such as:
assembling boxes, polishing shoes, stocking a store's products, or
8
cleaning. However, rather than in factories and sweatshops, most
child labour occurs in the informal sector, "selling many things on
the streets, at work in agriculture or hidden away in housesfar
from the reach of ofcial labour inspectors and from media
scrutiny." And all the work that they did was done in all types of
weather; and was also done for minimal pay. As long as there is
family poverty there will be child labour.
According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 158 million children
aged 5 to 14 in child labour worldwide, excluding child domestic
labour. The United Nations and the International Labour
Organization consider child labour exploitative, with the UN
stipulating, in article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child that:
...States Parties recognize the right of the child to be
protected from economic exploitation and from 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
9
development. Although globally there is an estimated
250 milllion children working.
In the 1990s every country in the world except for Somalia and the
United States became a signatory to the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, or CRC. However according to the United Nations
Foundation Somalia signed the convention in 2002, the delay of the
signing was believed to been due to Somalia not having a
government to sign the convention. The CRC provides the strongest,
most consistent international legal language prohibiting illegal child
labour; however it does not make child labour illegal.
A boy repairing a tire in Gambia
10
Poor families often rely on the labours of their children in order to
survive. Sometimes it is their only income.
In a recent paper, Basu and Van (1998) argue that the primary
cause of child labour is parental poverty. That being so, they
caution against the use of a legislative ban against child labour,
and argue that should be used only when there is reason to believe
that a ban on child labour will cause adult wages to rise and so
compensate adequately the households of the poor children. Child
labour is still widely used today in many countries, including India
and Bangladesh. CACL estimated that there are between 70 and 80
million child labourers in India.
Child labour accounts for 22% of the workforce in Asia, 32% in
Africa, 17% in Latin America, 1% in US, Canada, Europe and other
wealthy nations. The proportion of child labourers varies a lot
among countries and even regions inside those countries.
Recent child labour incidents
11
Young girl working on a loom in At Benhaddou, Morocco in May 2008.
BBC recently reported on Primark using child labour in the
manufacture of clothing. In particular a 4.00 hand embroidered
shirt was the starting point of a documentary produced by BBC's
Panorama (TV series) programme. The programme asks consumers
to ask themselves, "Why am I only paying 4 for a hand
embroidered top? This item looks handmade. Who made it for such
little cost?", in addition to exposing the violent side of the child
labour industry in countries where child exploitation is prevalent.
As a result of the programme, Primark took action and sacked the
relevant companies, and reviewed their supplier procedures.
12
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company operate a metal plantation
in Liberia which is the focus of a global campaign called Stop
Firestone. Workers on the plantation are expected to fulfl a high
production quota or their wages will be halved, so many workers
brought children to work. The International Labor Rights Fund fled
a lawsuit against Firestone (The International Labor Fund vs. The
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company) in November 2005 on behalf
of current child labourers and their parents who had also been
child labourers on the plantation. On June 26, 2007, the judge in
this lawsuit in Indianapolis, Indiana denied Firestone's motion to
dismiss the case and allowed the lawsuit to proceed on child labour
claims.
On November 21, 2005, an Indian NGO activist Junned Khan, with
the help of the Labour Department and NGO Pratham mounted the
country's biggest ever raid for child labour rescue in the Eastern
part of New Delhi, the capital of India. The process resulted in
rescue of 480 children from over 100 illegal embroidery factories
operating in the crowded slum area of Seelampur. For next few
weeks, government, media and NGOs were in a frenzy over the
13
exuberant numbers of young boys, as young as 5-6 year olds,
released from bondage. This rescue operation opened the eyes of
the world to the menace of child labour operating right under the
nose of the largest democracy in the whole world.
After the news of child labourers working in embroidery industry
was uncovered in the Sunday Observer on 28 October 2007, BBA
activists swung into action. The GAP Inc. in a statement accepted
that the child labourers were working in production of GAP Kids
blouses and has already made a statement to pull the products
from the shelf.
[21][22]
In spite of the documentation of the child
labourers working in the high-street fashion and admission by all
concerned parties, only the SDM could not recognise these children
as working under conditions of slavery and bondage.
Distraught and desperate that these collusions by the custodians of
justice, founder of BBA Kailash Satyarthi, Chairperson of Global
March Against Child Labour appealed to the Honourable Chief
Justice of Delhi High Court through a letter at 11.00 pm. This
order by the Honourable Chief Justice comes when the government
is taking an extremely retrogressive stance on the issue of child
14
labour in sweatshops in India and threatening 'retaliatory
measures' against child rights organisations.
In a parallel development, Global March Against Child Labour and
BBA are in dialogue with the GAP Inc. and other stakeholders to
work out a positive strategy to prevent the entry of child labour in
to sweatshops and device a mechanism of monitoring and remedial
action. GAP Inc. Senior Vice President, Dan Henkle in a statement
said: "We have been making steady progress, and the children are
now under the care of the local government. As our policy requires,
the vendor with which our order was originally placed will be
required to provide the children with access to schooling and job
training, pay them an ongoing wage and guarantee them jobs as
soon as they reach the legal working age. We will now work with the
local government and with Global March to ensure that our vendor
fulfls these obligations."
On October 28, Joe Eastman, president of Gap North America,
responded, "We strictly prohibit the use of child labor. This is non-
negotiable for us and we are deeply concerned and upset by this
allegation. As we've demonstrated in the past, Gap has a history of
15
addressing challenges like this head-on, and our approach to this
situation will be no exception. In 2006, Gap Inc. ceased business
with 23 factories due to code violations. We have 90 people located
around the world whose job is to ensure compliance with our Code
of Vendor Conduct. As soon as we were alerted to this situation, we
stopped the work order and prevented the product from being sold
in stores. While violations of our strict prohibition on child labor in
factories that produce product for the company are extremely rare,
we have called an urgent meeting with our suppliers in the region
to reinforce our policies."
In early August 2008, Iowa Labor Commissioner David Neil
announced that his department had found that Agriprocessors, a
kosher meatpacking company in Postville which had recently been
raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had employed 57
minors, some as young as 14, in violation of state law prohibiting
anyone under 18 from working in a meatpacking plant. Neil
announced that he was turning the case over to the state Attorney
General for prosecution, claiming that his department's inquiry had
discovered "egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa's
16
child labor laws." Agriprocessors claimed that it was at a loss to
understand the allegations. In 1997, research indicated that the
number of child labourers in the silk-weaving industry in the
district of Kanchipuram in India exceeded 40,000. This included
children who were bonded labourers to loom owners. Rural
Institute for Development Education undertook many activities to
improve the situation of child labourers. Working collaboratively,
RIDE brought down the number of child labourers to less than
4,000 by 2007
Child labour is also often used in the production of cocoa powder,
used to make chocolate. See Economics of cocoa.
In December 2009, campaigners in the UK called on two leading
high street retailers to stop selling clothes made with cotton which
may have been picked by children. Anti-Slavery International and
the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) accused H&M and
Zara of using cotton suppliers in Bangladesh. It is also suspected
that many of their raw materials originates from Uzbekistan, where
children aged 10 are forced to work in the felds. The activists were
calling to ban the use of Uzbek cotton and implement a "track and
17
trace" systems to guarantee an ethical responsible source of the
material.
H&M said it "does not accept" child labour and "seeks to avoid"
using Uzbek cotton, but admitted it did "not have any reliable
methods" to ensure Uzbek cotton did not end up in any of its
products. Inditex, the owner of Zara, said its code of conduct
banned child labour.
Defense of child labour
Child workers on a farm in Maine, October 1940
Concerns have often been raised over the buying public's moral
complicity in purchasing products assembled or otherwise
manufactured in developing countries with child labour. However,
others have raised concerns that boycotting products manufactured
18
through child labour may force these children to turn to more
dangerous or strenuous professions, such as prostitution or
agriculture. For example, a UNICEF study found that after the
Child Labor Deterrence Act was introduced in the US, an estimated
50,000 children were dismissed from their garment industry jobs in
Bangladesh, leaving many to resort to jobs such as "stone-
crushing, street hustling, and prostitution", jobs that are "more
hazardous and exploitative than garment production". The study
suggests that boycotts are "blunt instruments with long-term
consequences, that can actually harm rather than help the
children involved."
According to Milton Friedman, before the Industrial Revolution
virtually all children worked in agriculture. During the Industrial
Revolution many of these children moved from farm work to factory
work. Over time, as real wages rose, parents became able to aford
to send their children to school instead of work and as a result
child labour declined, both before and after legislation.
Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard also defended child
labour, stating that British and American children of the pre- and
19
post-Industrial Revolution lived and sufered in infnitely worse
conditions where jobs were not available for them and went
"voluntarily and gladly" to work in factories.
However, the British historian and socialist E. P. Thompson in The
Making of the English Working Class draws a qualitative distinction
between child domestic work and participation in the wider (waged)
labour market. Further, the usefulness of the experience of the
industrial revolution in making predictions about current trends
has been disputed. Economic historian Hugh Cunningham, author
of Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500, notes that:
"Fifty years ago it might have been assumed that, just as
child labour had declined in the developed world in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so it would
also, in a trickle-down fashion, in the rest of the world. Its
failure to do that, and its re-emergence in the developed
world, raise questions about its role in any economy,
whether national or global."
20
According to Thomas DeGregori, an economics professor at the
University of Houston, in an article published by the Cato Institute,
a libertarian think-tank operating in Washington D.C., "it is clear
that technological and economic change are vital ingredients in
getting children out of the workplace and into schools. Then they
can grow to become productive adults and live longer, healthier
lives. However, in poor countries like Bangladesh, working children
are essential for survival in many families, as they were in our own
heritage until the late 19th century. So, while the struggle to end
child labour is necessary, getting there often requires taking
diferent routesand, sadly, there are many political obstacles.
Lawrence Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic
Education contends that the infamously brutal child labour
conditions during the early industrial revolution were those of
"apprentice children" (who were forced to work, even actually sold
as slaves, by government-owned Workhouses) and not those of
"free-work children" (those who worked voluntarily). So, the
government and State-managed institutions, and not Laissez-faire
capitalism, is to blame. He further contends that, although work
21
conditions of free-work children were far from ideal, those have
been wildly exaggerated in such "authoritative" sources as the
Sadler report, a fact that even the anti-capitalist Friedrich Engels
acknowledged.
Eforts against child labour
The International Labour Organizations International Programme
on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was created in 1992 with
the overall goal of the progressive elimination of child labour, which
was to be achieved 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, with an annual expenditure on technical cooperation
projects that reached over US$61 million in 2008. It is the largest
programme of its kind globally and the biggest single operational
programme of the ILO.
The number and range of IPECs partners have expanded over the
years and now include employers and workers organizations, other
international and government agencies, private businesses,
community-based organizations, NGOs, the media,
22
parliamentarians, the judiciary, universities, religious groups and,
of course, children and their families.
IPEC's work to eliminate child labour is an important facet of the
ILO's Decent Work Agenda. Child labour not only prevents children
from acquiring the skills and education they need for a better
future, it also perpetuates poverty and afects national economies
through losses in competitiveness, productivity and potential
income. Withdrawing children from child labour, providing them
with education and assisting their families with training and
employment opportunities contribute directly to creating decent
work for adults.
23
Legal defnitions
Population aged under 15 years in 2005
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defnes a
child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the
law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier." Ratifed by
192 of 194 member countries. Biologically, a child is anyone in the
developmental stage of childhood, between infancy and adulthood.
24
ATTITUDES TOWARD CHILDREN
Social attitudes toward children difer around the world in various
cultures. These attitudes have changed over time. A 1988 study on
European attitudes toward the centrality of children found that
Italy was more child-centric and Holland less child-centric, with
other countries, such as Austria, Great Britain, Ireland and West
Germany falling in between.
Age of responsibility
The age at which children are considered responsible for their own
actions (e.g., marriage, voting, etc.) has also changed over time, and
25
this is refected in the way they are treated in courts of law. In
Roman times, children were regarded as not culpable for crimes, a
position later adopted by the Church. In the nineteenth century,
children younger than seven years old were believed incapable of
crime. Children from the age of seven were considered responsible
for their actions. Therefore, they could face criminal charges, be
sent to adult prison, and be punished like adults by whipping,
branding or hanging.
Surveys have found that at least 25 countries around the world
have no specifed age for compulsory education. Minimum
employment age and marriage age also vary. In at least 125
countries, children aged 7-15 may be taken to court and risk
imprisonment for criminal acts. In some countries, children are
legally obliged to go to school until they are 14 or 15 years old, but
may also work before that age. A child's right to education is
threatened by early marriage, child labour and imprisonment.
Socialization of the child
26
Children in Namibia
All children go through stages of social development. An infant or
very young child will play alone happily. If another child wanders
onto the scene, he or she may be physically attacked or pushed out
of the way. Next, the child is able to play with another child,
gradually learning to share and takes turns. Eventually the group
grows larger, to three or four children. By the time a child enters
kindergarten, he or she is usually able to join in and enjoy group
experiences.
Children with ADHD and learning disabilities may need extra help
in developing social skills. The impulsive characteristics of an
ADHD child may lead to poor peer relationships. Children with poor
attention spans may not tune in to social cues in their
27
environment, making it difcult for them to learn social skills
through experience.
28
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND CHILD LABOUR
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th
century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing,
mining, and transport had a profound efect on the socioeconomic
and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then
subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and
eventually the world. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked
a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect of
daily life was eventually infuenced in some way.
Starting in the later part of the 18th century there began a
transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual labour and
draft-animalbased economy towards machine-based
manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile
29
industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the
increased use of refned coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the
introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. The
introduction of steam power fuelled primarily by coal, wider
utilisation of water wheels and powered machinery (mainly in
textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in
production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in
the frst two decades of the 19th century facilitated the
manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in
other industries. The efects spread throughout Western Europe
and North America during the 19th century, eventually afecting
most of the world, a process that continues as industrialisation.
The impact of this change on society was enormous.
The frst Industrial Revolution, which began in the 18th century,
merged into the Second Industrial Revolution around 1850, when
technological and economic progress gained momentum with the
development of steam-powered ships, railways, and later in the
19th century with the internal combustion engine and electrical
power generation. The period of time covered by the Industrial
30
Revolution varies with diferent historians. Eric Hobsbawm held
that it 'broke out' in Britain in the 1780s and was not fully felt until
the 1830s or 1840s, while T. S. Ashton held that it occurred
roughly between 1760 and 1830. Some twentieth century
historians such as John Clapham and Nicholas Crafts have argued
that the process of economic and social change took place
gradually and the term revolution is not a true description of what
took place. This is still a subject of debate among historians. GDP
per capita was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and
the emergence of the modern capitalist economy. The Industrial
Revolution began an era of per-capita economic growth in capitalist
economies. Historians agree that the Industrial Revolution was one
of the most important events in history.
The earliest use of the term "Industrial Revolution" yet located
seems to be a letter of 6 July 1799 by French envoy Louis-
Guillaume Otto, announcing that the process had started in his
country. In his book Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and
Society, Raymond Williams states in the entry for "Industry": "The
idea of a new social order based on major industrial change was
31
clear in Southey and Owen, between 1811 and 1818, and was
implicit as early as Blake in the early 1790s and Wordsworth at the
turn of the century." The term Industrial Revolution applied to
technological change was becoming more common by the late
1830s, as in Louis-Auguste Blanqui description in 1837 of la
rvolution industrielle. Friedrich Engels in The Condition of the
Working Class in England in 1844 spoke of "an industrial
revolution, a revolution which at the same time changed the whole
of civil society". Credit for popularising the term may be given to
Arnold Toynbee, whose lectures given in 1881 gave a detailed
account of it.
The debate about the start of the Industrial Revolution also
concerns the massive lead that Great Britain had over other
countries. Some have stressed the importance of natural or
fnancial resources that Britain received from its many overseas
colonies or that profts from the British slave trade between Africa
and the Caribbean helped fuel industrial investment. It has been
pointed out, however, that slave trade and West Indian plantations
provided only 5% of the British national income during the years of
32
the Industrial Revolution. Even though slavery accounted for
minimal economic profts in Britain during the Industrial
Revolution Caribbean-based demand accounted for 12% of
England's industrial output.
Alternatively, the greater liberalization of trade from a large
merchant base may have allowed Britain to produce and use
emerging scientifc and technological developments more efectively
than countries with stronger monarchies, particularly China and
Russia. Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as the only
European nation not ravaged by fnancial plunder and economic
collapse, and possessing the only merchant feet of any useful size
(European merchant feets having been destroyed during the war by
the Royal Navy). Britain's extensive exporting cottage industries
also ensured markets were already available for many early forms of
manufactured goods. The confict resulted in most British warfare
being conducted overseas, reducing the devastating efects of
territorial conquest that afected much of Europe. This was further
aided by Britain's geographical positionan island separated from
the rest of mainland Europe.
33
Another theory is that Britain was able to succeed in the Industrial
Revolution due to the availability of key resources it possessed. It
had a dense population for its small geographical size. Enclosure of
common land and the related agricultural revolution made a supply
of this labour readily available. There was also a local coincidence
of natural resources in the North of England, the English Midlands,
South Wales and the Scottish Lowlands. Local supplies of coal,
iron, lead, copper, tin, limestone and water power, resulted in
excellent conditions for the development and expansion of industry.
Also, the damp, mild weather conditions of the North West of
England provided ideal conditions for the spinning of cotton,
providing a natural starting point for the birth of the textiles
industry.
The stable political situation in Britain from around 1688, and
British society's greater receptiveness to change (compared with
other European countries) can also be said to be factors favouring
the Industrial Revolution. In large part due to the Enclosure
movement, the peasantry was destroyed as a signifcant source of
resistance to industrialisation, and the landed upper classes
34
developed commercial interests that made them pioneers in
removing obstacles to the growth of capitalism. (This point is also
made in Hilaire Belloc's The Servile State.)
Protestant work ethic
Another theory is that the British advance was due to the presence
of an entrepreneurial class which believed in progress, technology
and hard work. The existence of this class is often linked to the
Protestant work ethic (see Max Weber) and the particular status of
the Baptists and the dissenting Protestant sects, such as the
Quakers and Presbyterians that had fourished with the English
Civil War. Reinforcement of confdence in the rule of law, which
followed establishment of the prototype of constitutional monarchy
in Britain in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and the emergence of
a stable fnancial market there based on the management of the
national debt by the Bank of England, contributed to the capacity
for, and interest in, private fnancial investment in industrial
ventures.
Dissenters found themselves barred or discouraged from almost all
public ofces, as well as education at England's only two
35
universities at the time (although dissenters were still free to study
at Scotland's four universities). When the restoration of the
monarchy took place and membership in the ofcial Anglican
Church became mandatory due to the Test Act, they thereupon
became active in banking, manufacturing and education. The
Unitarians, in particular, were very involved in education, by
running Dissenting Academies, where, in contrast to the
universities of Oxford and Cambridge and schools such as Eton
and Harrow, much attention was given to mathematics and the
sciencesareas of scholarship vital to the development of
manufacturing technologies.
Historians sometimes consider this social factor to be extremely
important, along with the nature of the national economies
involved. While members of these sects were excluded from certain
circles of the government, they were considered fellow Protestants,
to a limited extent, by many in the middle class, such as traditional
fnanciers or other businessmen. Given this relative tolerance and
the supply of capital, the natural outlet for the more enterprising
members of these sects would be to seek new opportunities in the
36
technologies created in the wake of the scientifc revolution of the
17th century.
Innovations
The only surviving example of a Spinning Mule built by the inventor
Samuel Crompton
The commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to
a small number of innovations,
[37]
made in the second half of the
18th century:
Textiles Cotton spinning using Richard Arkwright's water
frame, James Hargreaves's Spinning Jenny, and Samuel
Crompton's Spinning Mule (a combination of the Spinning
Jenny and the Water Frame). This was patented in 1769 and
so came out of patent in 1783. The end of the patent was
37
rapidly followed by the erection of many cotton mills. Similar
technology was subsequently applied to spinning worsted
yarn for various textiles and fax for linen.
Steam power The improved steam engine invented by
James Watt and patented in 1775 was initially mainly used
for pumping out mines, but from the 1780s was applied to
power machines. This enabled rapid development of efcient
semi-automated factories on a previously unimaginable scale
in places where waterpower was not available.
Iron founding In the Iron industry, coke was fnally applied
to all stages of iron smelting, replacing charcoal. This had
been achieved much earlier for lead and copper as well as for
producing pig iron in a blast furnace, but the second stage in
the production of bar iron depended on the use of potting and
stamping (for which a patent expired in 1786) or puddling
(patented by Henry Cort in 1783 and 1784).
These represent three 'leading sectors', in which there were key
innovations, which allowed the economic take of by which the
Industrial Revolution is usually defned. This is not to belittle many
38
other inventions, particularly in the textile industry. Without some
earlier ones, such as the spinning jenny and fying shuttle in the
textile industry and the smelting of pig iron with coke, these
achievements might have been impossible. Later inventions such as
the power loom and Richard Trevithick's high pressure steam
engine were also important in the growing industrialization of
Britain. The application of steam engines to powering cotton mills
and ironworks enabled these to be built in places that were most
convenient because other resources were available, rather than
where there was water to power a watermill.
In the textile sector, such mills became the model for the
organisation of human labour in factories, epitomised by
Cottonopolis, the name given to the vast collection of cotton mills,
factories and administration ofces based in Manchester. The
assembly line system greatly improved efciency, both in this and
other industries. With a series of men trained to do a single task on
a product, then having it moved along to the next worker, the
number of fnished goods also rose signifcantly.
39
Also important was the 1756 rediscovery of concrete (based on
hydraulic lime mortar) by the British engineer John Smeaton,
which had been lost for 13 centuries.
Transfer of knowledge
A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery (ca. 1766) Informal
philosophical societies spread scientifc advances
Knowledge of new innovation was spread by several means. Workers
who were trained in the technique might move to another employer
or might be poached. A common method was for someone to make
a study tour, gathering information where he could. During the
whole of the Industrial Revolution and for the century before, all
European countries and America engaged in study-touring; some
nations, like Sweden and France, even trained civil servants or
technicians to undertake it as a matter of state policy. In other
40
countries, notably Britain and America, this practice was carried
out by individual manufacturers anxious to improve their own
methods. Study tours were common then, as now, as was the
keeping of travel diaries. Records made by industrialists and
technicians of the period are an incomparable source of
information about their methods.
Another means for the spread of innovation was by the network of
informal philosophical societies, like the Lunar Society of
Birmingham, in which members met to discuss 'natural philosophy'
(i.e. science) and often its application to manufacturing. The Lunar
Society fourished from 1765 to 1809, and it has been said of them,
"They were, if you like, the revolutionary committee of that most far
reaching of all the eighteenth century revolutions, the Industrial
Revolution". Other such societies published volumes of proceedings
and transactions. For example, the London-based Royal Society of
Arts published an illustrated volume of new inventions, as well as
papers about them in its annual Transactions.
There were publications describing technology. Encyclopaedias
such as Harris's Lexicon Technicum (1704) and Dr Abraham Rees's
41
Cyclopaedia (18021819) contain much of value. Cyclopaedia
contains an enormous amount of information about the science
and technology of the frst half of the Industrial Revolution, very
well illustrated by fne engravings. Foreign printed sources such as
the Descriptions des Arts et Mtiers and Diderot's Encyclopdie
explained foreign methods with fne engraved plates.
Periodical publications about manufacturing and technology began
to appear in the last decade of the 18th century, and many
regularly included notice of the latest patents. Foreign periodicals,
such as the Annales des Mines, published accounts of travels made
by French engineers who observed British methods on study tours.
Technological Developments in Britain
Textile manufacture
42
Model of the spinning jenny in a museum in Wuppertal, Germany.
The spinning jenny was one of the innovations that started the
revolution.
In the early 18th century, British textile manufacture was based on
wool which was processed by individual artisans, doing the
spinning and weaving on their own premises. This system is called
a cottage industry. Flax and cotton were also used for fne
materials, but the processing was difcult because of the pre-
processing needed, and thus goods in these materials made only a
small proportion of the output.
Use of the spinning wheel and hand loom restricted the production
capacity of the industry, but incremental advances increased
productivity to the extent that manufactured cotton goods became
the dominant British export by the early decades of the 19th
century. India was displaced as the premier supplier of cotton
goods.
Lewis Paul patented the Roller Spinning machine and the fyer-and-
bobbin system for drawing wool to a more even thickness,
developed with the help of John Wyatt in Birmingham. Paul and
43
Wyatt opened a mill in Birmingham which used their new rolling
machine powered by a donkey. In 1743, a factory was opened in
Northampton with ffty spindles on each of fve of Paul and Wyatt's
machines. This operated until about 1764. A similar mill was built
by Daniel Bourn in Leominster, but this burnt down. Both Lewis
Paul and Daniel Bourn patented carding machines in 1748. Using
two sets of rollers that travelled at diferent speeds, it was later
used in the frst cotton spinning mill. Lewis's invention was later
developed and improved by Richard Arkwright in his water frame
and Samuel Crompton in his spinning mule.
Other inventors increased the efciency of the individual steps of
spinning (carding, twisting and spinning, and rolling) so that the
supply of yarn increased greatly, which fed a weaving industry that
was advancing with improvements to shuttles and the loom or
'frame'. The output of an individual labourer increased
dramatically, with the efect that the new machines were seen as a
threat to employment, and early innovators were attacked and their
inventions destroyed.
44
To capitalise upon these advances, it took a class of entrepreneurs,
of which the most famous is Richard Arkwright. He is credited with
a list of inventions, but these were actually developed by people
such as Thomas Highs and John Kay; Arkwright nurtured the
inventors, patented the ideas, fnanced the initiatives, and
protected the machines. He created the cotton mill which brought
the production processes together in a factory, and he developed
the use of powerfrst horse power and then water powerwhich
made cotton manufacture a mechanised industry. Before long
steam power was applied to drive textile machinery.
Metallurgy
Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801, Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg the
Younger
Blast furnaces light the iron making town of Coalbrookdale
45
The Reverberatory Furnace could produce wrought iron using
mined coal. The burning coal remained separate from the iron ore
and so did not contaminate the iron with impurities like sulphur.
This opened the way to increased iron production.
The major change in the metal industries during the era of the
Industrial Revolution was the replacement of organic fuels based on
wood with fossil fuel based on coal. Much of this happened
somewhat before the Industrial Revolution, based on innovations by
Sir Clement Clerke and others from 1678, using coal reverberatory
furnaces known as cupolas. These were operated by the fames,
which contained carbon monoxide, playing on the ore and reducing
the oxide to metal. This has the advantage that impurities (such as
sulphur) in the coal do not migrate into the metal. This technology
was applied to lead from 1678 and to copper from 1687. It was also
46
applied to iron foundry work in the 1690s, but in this case the
reverberatory furnace was known as an air furnace. The foundry
cupola is a diferent (and later) innovation.
This was followed by Abraham Darby, who made great strides using
coke to fuel his blast furnaces at Coalbrookdale in 1709. However,
the coke pig iron he made was used mostly for the production of
cast iron goods such as pots and kettles. He had the advantage over
his rivals in that his pots, cast by his patented process, were
thinner and cheaper than theirs. Coke pig iron was hardly used to
produce bar iron in forges until the mid 1750s, when his son
Abraham Darby II built Horsehay and Ketley furnaces (not far from
Coalbrookdale). By then, coke pig iron was cheaper than charcoal
pig iron.
Bar iron for smiths to forge into consumer goods was still made in
fnery forges, as it long had been. However, new processes were
adopted in the ensuing years. The frst is referred to today as
potting and stamping, but this was superseded by Henry Cort's
puddling process. From 1785, perhaps because the improved
version of potting and stamping was about to come out of patent, a
47
great expansion in the output of the British iron industry began.
The new processes did not depend on the use of charcoal at all and
were therefore not limited by charcoal sources.
Up to that time, British iron manufacturers had used considerable
amounts of imported iron to supplement native supplies. This came
principally from Sweden from the mid 17th century and later also
from Russia from the end of the 1720s. However, from 1785,
imports decreased because of the new iron making technology, and
Britain became an exporter of bar iron as well as manufactured
wrought iron consumer goods.
Since iron was becoming cheaper and more plentiful, it also
became a major structural material following the building of the
innovative The Iron Bridge in 1778 by Abraham Darby III.
The Iron Bridge, Shropshire, England
48
An improvement was made in the production of steel, which was an
expensive commodity and used only where iron would not do, such
as for the cutting edge of tools and for springs. Benjamin
Huntsman developed his crucible steel technique in the 1740s. The
raw material for this was blister steel, made by the cementation
process.
The supply of cheaper iron and steel aided the development of
boilers and steam engines, and eventually railways. Improvements
in machine tools allowed better working of iron and steel and
further boosted the industrial growth of Britain.
Mining
Men working their own coal mines. Early 1900s, USA
49
Coal mining in Britain, particularly in South Wales started early.
Before the steam engine, pits were often shallow bell pits following a
seam of coal along the surface, which were abandoned as the coal
was extracted. In other cases, if the geology was favourable, the
coal was mined by means of an adit or drift mine driven into the
side of a hill. Shaft mining was done in some areas, but the limiting
factor was the problem of removing water. It could be done by
hauling buckets of water up the shaft or to a sough (a tunnel driven
into a hill to drain a mine). In either case, the water had to be
discharged into a stream or ditch at a level where it could fow away
by gravity. The introduction of the steam engine greatly facilitated
the removal of water and enabled shafts to be made deeper,
enabling more coal to be extracted. These were developments that
had begun before the Industrial Revolution, but the adoption of
James Watt's more efcient steam engine from the 1770s reduced
the fuel costs of engines, making mines more proftable. Coal
mining was very dangerous owing to the presence of fredamp in
many coal seams. Some degree of safety was provided by the safety
lamp which was invented in 1816 by Sir Humphry Davy and
50
independently by George Stephenson. However, the lamps proved a
false dawn because they became unsafe very quickly and provided
a weak light. Firedamp explosions continued, often setting of coal
dust explosions, so casualties grew during the entire nineteenth
century. Conditions of work were very poor, with a high casualty
rate from rock falls.
Glass making
The Crystal Palace held the Great Exhibition of 1851
A new method of producing glass, known as the cylinder process,
was developed in Europe during the early 19th century. In 1832,
this process was used by the Chance Brothers to create sheet glass.
They became the leading producers of window and plate glass. This
51
advancement allowed for larger panes of glass to be created without
interruption, thus freeing up the space planning in interiors as well
as the fenestration of buildings. The Crystal Palace is the supreme
example of the use of sheet glass in a new and innovative structure.
Efects on agriculture
The invention of machinery played a big part in driving forward the
British Agricultural Revolution. Agricultural improvement began in
the centuries before the Industrial revolution got going and it may
have played a part in freeing up labour from the land to work in the
new industrial mills of the eighteenth century. As the revolution in
industry progressed a succession of machines became available
which increased food production with ever fewer labourers.
Jethro Tull's seed drill invented in 1731 was a mechanical seeder
which distributed seeds efciently across a plot of land. Joseph
Foljambe's Rotherham plough of 1730, was the frst commercially
successful iron plough. Andrew Meikle's threshing machine of 1784
was the fnal straw for many farm labourers, and led to the 1830
agricultural rebellion of the Swing Riots.
52
Transport in Britain
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, inland transport was
by navigable rivers and roads, with coastal vessels employed to
move heavy goods by sea. Railways or wagon ways were used for
conveying coal to rivers for further shipment, but canals had not
yet been constructed. Animals supplied all of the motive power on
land, with sails providing the motive power on the sea.
The Industrial Revolution improved Britain's transport
infrastructure with a turnpike road network, a canal and waterway
network, and a railway network. Raw materials and fnished
products could be moved more quickly and cheaply than before.
Improved transportation also allowed new ideas to spread quickly.
Coastal sail
Sailing vessels had long been used for moving goods round the
British coast. The trade transporting coal to London from Newcastle
had begun in medieval times. The transport of goods coastwise by
sea within Britain was common during the Industrial Revolution,
53
as for centuries before. This became less important with the growth
of the railways at the end of the period.
Navigable rivers
All the major rivers of the United Kingdom were navigable during
the Industrial Revolution. Some were anciently navigable, notably
the Severn, Thames, and Trent. Some were improved, or had
navigation extended upstream, but usually in the period before the
Industrial Revolution, rather than during it.
The Severn, in particular, was used for the movement of goods to
the Midlands which had been imported into Bristol from abroad,
and for the export of goods from centres of production in
Shropshire (such as iron goods from Coalbrookdale) and the Black
Country. Transport was by way of trowssmall sailing vessels
which could pass the various shallows and bridges in the river. The
trows could navigate the Bristol Channel to the South Wales ports
and Somerset ports, such as Bridgwater and even as far as France.
54
Canals
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Llangollen, Wales
Canals began to be built in the late eighteenth century to link the
major manufacturing centres in the Midlands and north with
seaports and with London, at that time itself the largest
manufacturing centre in the country. Canals were the frst
technology to allow bulk materials to be easily transported across
country. A single canal horse could pull a load dozens of times
larger than a cart at a faster pace. By the 1820s, a national
network was in existence. Canal construction served as a model for
the organisation and methods later used to construct the railways.
They were eventually largely superseded as proftable commercial
enterprises by the spread of the railways from the 1840s on.
55
Britain's canal network, together with its surviving mill buildings,
is one of the most enduring features of the early Industrial
Revolution to be seen in Britain.
Roads
Much of the original British road system was poorly maintained by
thousands of local parishes, but from the 1720s (and occasionally
earlier) turnpike trusts were set up to charge tolls and maintain
some roads. Increasing numbers of main roads were turnpiked
from the 1750s to the extent that almost every main road in
England and Wales was the responsibility of some turnpike trust.
New engineered roads were built by John Metcalf, Thomas Telford
and John Macadam. The major turnpikes radiated from London
and were the means by which the Royal Mail was able to reach the
rest of the country. Heavy goods transport on these roads was by
means of slow, broad wheeled, carts hauled by teams of horses.
Lighter goods were conveyed by smaller carts or by teams of pack
horse. Stage coaches carried the rich, and the less wealthy could
pay to ride on carriers carts.
56
Social efects
In terms of social structure, the Industrial Revolution witnessed the
triumph of a middle class of industrialists and businessmen over a
landed class of nobility and gentry.
Ordinary working people found increased opportunities for
employment in the new mills and factories, but these were often
under strict working conditions with long hours of labour
dominated by a pace set by machines. However, harsh working
conditions were prevalent long before the Industrial Revolution took
place. Pre-industrial society was very static and often cruelchild
labour, dirty living conditions, and long working hours were just as
prevalent before the Industrial Revolution.
Factories and urbanisation
57
Manchester, England ("Cottonopolis"), pictured in 1840, showing the mass of
factory chimneys
Industrialization led to the creation of the factory. Arguably the
frst was John Lombe's water-powered silk mill at Derby,
operational by 1721. However, the rise of the factory came
somewhat later when cotton spinning was mechanised.
The factory system was largely responsible for the rise of the
modern city, as large numbers of workers migrated into the cities in
search of employment in the factories. Nowhere was this better
illustrated than the mills and associated industries of Manchester,
nicknamed "Cottonopolis", and arguably the world's frst industrial
city. For much of the 19th century, production was done in small
mills, which were typically water-powered and built to serve local
needs. Later each factory would have its own steam engine and a
chimney to give an efcient draft through its boiler.
The transition to industrialization was not without difculty. For
example, a group of English workers known as Luddites formed to
protest against industrialization and sometimes sabotaged
factories.
58
In other industries the transition to factory production was not so
divisive. Some industrialists themselves tried to improve factory
and living conditions for their workers. One of the earliest such
reformers was Robert Owen, known for his pioneering eforts in
improving conditions for workers at the New Lanark mills, and often
regarded as one of the key thinkers of the early socialist movement.
By 1746, an integrated brass mill was working at Warmley near
Bristol. Raw material went in at one end, was smelted into brass
and was turned into pans, pins, wire, and other goods. Housing
was provided for workers on site. Josiah Wedgwood and Matthew
Boulton were other prominent early industrialists, who employed
the factory system.
Child labour
A young "drawer" pulling a coal tub along a mine gallery
59
The Industrial Revolution led to a population increase, but the
chance of surviving childhood did not improve throughout the
industrial revolution (although infant mortality rates were reduced
markedly). There was still limited opportunity for education, and
children were expected to work. Employers could pay a child less
than an adult even though their productivity was comparable;
there was no need for strength to operate an industrial machine,
and since the industrial system was completely new there were no
experienced adult labourers. This made child labour the labour of
choice for manufacturing in the early phases of the Industrial
Revolution between the 18th and 19th centuries. In England and
Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered
cotton mills were described as children.
Child labour had existed before the Industrial Revolution, but with
the increase in population and education it became more visible.
Many children were forced to work in relatively bad conditions for
much lower pay than their elders.
60
Reports were written detailing some of the abuses, particularly in
the coal mines and textile factories and these helped to popularise
the children's plight. The public outcry, especially among the upper
and middle classes, helped stir change in the young workers'
welfare.
Politicians and the government tried to limit child labour by law,
but factory owners resisted; some felt that they were aiding the
poor by giving their children money to buy food to avoid starvation,
and others simply welcomed the cheap labour. In 1833 and 1844,
the frst general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were
passed in England: Children younger than nine were not allowed to
work, children were not permitted to work at night, and the work
day of youth under the age of 18 was limited to twelve hours.
Factory inspectors supervised the execution of the law. About ten
years later, the employment of children and women in mining was
forbidden. These laws decreased the number of child labourers;
however, child labour remained in Europe and the United States up
to the 20th century. By 1900, there were 1.7 million child labourers
reported in American industry under the age of ffteen.
61
Housing
Over London by Rail Gustave Dor c. 1870. Shows the densely populated and
polluted environments created in the new industrial cities
Living conditions during the Industrial Revolution varied from the slendour of the
homes of the o!ners to the s"ualor of the lives of the !or#ers$ %oor eole lived in ver&
small houses in cramed streets$ 'hese homes !ould share toilet facilities( have oen
se!ers and !ould )e at ris# of damp$ *isease !as sread through a contaminated !ater
sul&$ +onditions did imrove during the 19th centur& as u)lic health acts !ere
introduced covering things such as se!age( h&giene and ma#ing some )oundaries uon
the construction of homes$ ,ot ever&)od& lived in homes li#e these$ 'he Industrial
Revolution created a larger middle class of rofessionals such as la!&ers and doctors$
'he conditions for the oor imroved over the course of the 19th centur& )ecause of
government and local lans !hich led to cities )ecoming cleaner laces( )ut life had not
)een eas& for the oor )efore industrialisation$ -o!ever( as a result of the Revolution(
62
huge num)ers of the !or#ing class died due to diseases sreading through the cramed
living conditions$ +hest diseases from the mines( cholerafrom olluted !ater and
t&hoid !ere also e.tremel& common( as !as smallo.$ /ccidents in factories !ith child
and female !or#ers !ere regular$ Dickens'novels illustrate this0 even some
government officials !ere horrified )& !hat the& sa!$ 1tri#es and riots )& !or#ers !ere
also relativel& common$
Luddites
The Leader of the luddites, engraving of 1812
The rapid industrialization of the English economy cost many craft
workers their jobs. The movement started frst with lace and
hosiery workers near Nottingham and spread to other areas of the
63
textile industry owing to early industrialization. Many weavers also
found themselves suddenly unemployed since they could no longer
compete with machines which only required relatively limited (and
unskilled) labour to produce more cloth than a single weaver. Many
such unemployed workers, weavers and others, turned their
animosity towards the machines that had taken their jobs and
began destroying factories and machinery. These attackers became
known as Luddites, supposedly followers of Ned Ludd, a folklore
fgure. The frst attacks of the Luddite movement began in 1811.
The Luddites rapidly gained popularity, and the British government
took drastic measures using the militia or army to protect industry.
Those rioters who were caught were tried and hanged, or
transported for life.
Unrest continued in other sectors as they industrialised, such as
agricultural labourers in the 1830s, when large parts of southern
Britain were afected by the Captain Swing disturbances. Threshing
machines were a particular target, and rick burning was a popular
activity. However the riots led to the frst formation of trade unions,
and further pressure for reform.
64
Organisation of labour
The Great Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common, 1848
The Industrial Revolution concentrated labour into mills, factories
and mines, thus facilitating the organization of combinations or
trade unions to help advance the interests of working people. The
power of a union could demand better terms by withdrawing all
labour and causing a consequent cessation of production.
Employers had to decide between giving in to the union demands at
a cost to themselves or sufer the cost of the lost production.
Skilled workers were hard to replace, and these were the frst
groups to successfully advance their conditions through this kind
of bargaining.
The main method the unions used to efect change was strike
action. Many strikes were painful events for both sides, the unions
65
and the management. In England, the Combination Act forbade
workers to form any kind of trade union from 1799 until its repeal
in 1824. Even after this, unions were still severely restricted.
In 1832, the year of the Reform Act which extended the vote in
England but did not grant universal sufrage, six men from
Tolpuddle in Dorset founded the Friendly Society of Agricultural
Labourers to protest against the gradual lowering of wages in the
1830s. They refused to work for less than 10 shillings a week,
although by this time wages had been reduced to seven shillings a
week and were due to be further reduced to six shillings. In 1834
James Frampton, a local landowner, wrote to the Prime Minister,
Lord Melbourne, to complain about the union, invoking an obscure
law from 1797 prohibiting people from swearing oaths to each
other, which the members of the Friendly Society had done. James
Brine, James Hammett, George Loveless, George's brother James
Loveless, George's brother in-law Thomas Standfeld, and Thomas's
son John Standfeld were arrested, found guilty, and transported to
Australia. They became known as the Tolpuddle martyrs. In the
1830s and 1840s the Chartist movement was the frst large scale
66
organised working class political movement which campaigned for
political equality and social justice. Its Charter of reforms received
over three million signatures but was rejected by Parliament
without consideration.
Working people also formed friendly societies and co-operative
societies as mutual support groups against times of economic
hardship. Enlightened industrialists, such as Robert Owen also
supported these organisations to improve the conditions of the
working class.
Unions slowly overcame the legal restrictions on the right to strike.
In 1842, a General Strike involving cotton workers and colliers was
organised through the Chartist movement which stopped
production across Great Britain.
Eventually efective political organisation for working people was
achieved through the trades unions who, after the extensions of the
franchise in 1867 and 1885, began to support socialist political
parties that later merged to became the British Labour Party.
67
Other efects
The application of steam power to the industrial processes of
printing supported a massive expansion of newspaper and popular
book publishing, which reinforced rising literacy and demands for
mass political participation.
During the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children
increased dramatically. The percentage of the children born in
London who died before the age of fve decreased from 74.5% in
17301749 to 31.8% in 18101829. Also, there was a signifcant
increase in worker wages during the period 1813-1913.
According to Robert Hughes in The Fatal Shore, the population of
England and Wales, which had remained steady at 6 million from
1700 to 1740, rose dramatically after 1740. The population of
England had more than doubled from 8.3 million in 1801 to 16.8
million in 1851 and, by 1901, had nearly doubled again to 30.5
million. As living conditions and health care improved during the
19th century, Britain's population doubled every 50 years. Europes
population doubled during the 18th century, from roughly 100
68
million to almost 200 million, and doubled again during the 19th
century, to around 400 million.
The growth of modern industry from the late 18th century onward
led to massive urbanization and the rise of new great cities, frst in
Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought
huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban
areas. In 1800, only 3% of the world's population lived in cities, a
fgure that has risen to nearly 50% at the beginning of the 21st
century. In 1717 Manchester was merely a market town of 10,000
people, but by 1911 it had a population of 2.3 million.
69
CHILD LABOUR IN ALIGARH
A survey of child labourers in Aligarh reveals that household
economic pressures compel children to enter into low-wage,
hazardous work environment that proves detrimental to their
educational and health prospects.
The issue of child labour is of international concern today. In India,
child labour is quite prevalent in almost all the states and regions
in a number of sectors. The estimates of magnitude of child
labourers in India ranges from 44 to 100 million, with an
overwhelming proportion in the rural areas. The child laboures are
in constant rise in India which is due to multiplicity of factors like
poverty, population growth, displacement of the poor from their
lands, social insecurity, faculty educational system, familial
problems, adult unemployment, and also preference for children in
certain works. The causes are deep-rooted in our social system. The
health hazards, are due to multiple social factors including poor
economic, housing, educational, hygienic, and working conditions.
Our study in Aligarh lock industry is conducted through extensive
survey of literature coupled with three-month feld work (December
70
1994 to February 1995). Our study mainly focuses on Muslim child
labourers as around 80 percent of child labourers in the lock
industry are Muslims. The children are interviewed by the author
depending on the co-operation of both the children and their
employers or parents. The break up of samples taken for in depth
interviews from diferent processes of lock making is as follows 8
from electroplating 8 from polishing. 5 from hand pressing, 2 from
packaging and 6 from other process-a total of 28 child labourers.
The total area of Aligarh city is 33.98 sq. km and its total
population is 4,80,520 which 2.57,370 are male 2,23,130 are
female [Census of India 1991]. The literacy rate in city is 59.61
percent and the number of literate among males is 1,41,845 and
among females is 90,147. Muslims constitute nearly one-third of
Aligarhs total population (see table 1). The proportions of Muslims
to the total population in Aligarh is (34.4 percent) [Ahamed 1993]
which is higher compared to other cities. The proportion of Muslims
in Aligarh corresponds to the old cities of Hyderabad where they
constitute (38.1 percent), Nizamabad (29.5 percent), Bhagalpur
(30.2 percent), Calicut (33.3 percent), Bhopal (36.6 percent),
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Aurangabad (35.1 percent), Bijapur (33.2 percent), Meerut (36.7
percent), Saharanpur (38.6 percent), and Firozabad (40 percent)
[Ahamed 1993: 30]. Since independence Aligarh has grown from a
small town to an important centre for industry and learning. There
are three factors which have contributed to the development of
Aligarh. These include the establishment of the Aligarh Muslim
University (AMU) during the pre-independence period, the growth
of trade trough the establishment of light industries, and its
demarcation as the district headquarters which gave it
administrative importance.
Aligarh city is divided into two distinct parts- the old city and the
civil lines. These two parts of the city are the distinct from each
other in appearance, occupational distribution, and social and
living conditions. The Civil lines area is much better developed in
terms of infrastructural inputs. It is here that the university
campus, main government ofces, residences of ex-zamindari elite,
and wealthier businessmen are located. The old city, on the other
hand, is congested, over-populated with open drains, kachcha
roads and poor water supply. Mohalla lanes are saturated with
72
small factories and workshop devoted to small scale or cottage
industries. This city has all the problems due to lack of
infrastructural inputs, viz, proper sanitation and water supply. As a
result water related diseases are endemic, as are industrial and
urban health problems such as tuberculosis [Ahamed 1993; 36].
The people who reside in this area are mostly poor, petty
businessmen, artisans and daily wage labourers. The distribution
of population within the distribution of population within, Aligarh
city shows that people lend to be divided according to both religion
and caste [Burra 1987: 1117-211]. There are certain pockets in the
old city which are dominated by Muslims while other localities are
Hindu dominated. This kind of segregation has been also observed
in the old cities of Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kanpur,
Varanasi, Meerut and Delhi. Most of the Muslim dominated
Mohallas in the old city are located in the centre and are
surrounded by Hindu localities. Over the last couple of years there
has been in migration of poor people from the adjoining rural areas
of Aligarh City in search of Jobs. This has resulted in increase in
population of Aligarh city. In the next section we examine the
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history of order to locate and relate the role of child workers
because Aligarh is famous for lock industry that why we discuss
lock industry in Aligarh.
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CHILDREN IN ALIGARH LOCK INDUSTRY:
The Aligarh lock industry is mainly a small-scale industry, where
manual labour and hand work is predominant. It is one of the
biggest industries of the country employing 70,000-80,000 workers
and earning corres of foreign exchange [Singh 1987]. The lock
industry began in Aligarh in the 19
th
century catering to the
demands of the postal department. Aligarh Postal Workshop was
set up in Aligarh town in 1842. It was meant to supply the postal
department all over the country numerous articles like scales,
locks, letter, boxes, badges, belts, seals, knives, scissors, lamps,
lanterns, mail carts, mailbags etc. The worker after knowing the
techniques left the workshop and established their own frms
[Hasan 1991-3]. Many of the artisans who were highly skilled sword
makers constituted the workers for the lock industry. Fahimuddin
Germany recalls that his family settled in Aligarh 700 years ago.
Possessing the skill of casting them easily took to lock-making
when the patronage to the art of sword-making declined [Burra
1987: 1117-21]. In the early years, the making of lock was a village
industry and locks or components of locks were made by the
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artisan in his home, with the help of his family labour. Many
families, who found it difcult to support themselves only by
agriculture, started making locks (interview with a member of
Aligarh Lock Manufacturer and Traders Association, 1995). As
demand increased, new factories and frms were established during
the 1940s.The control of production of locks has been traditionally
with the Muslims, but currently, Hindus are also involved both as
workers and manufacturers. At the time of partition the industry
sufered a great setback. All credit facilities were abandoned and
there was great exodus of skilled Muslim workers to Pakistan,
which could not be replaced.
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CHILDE LABOUR LAW IN INDIA
History of Legislation Relating to Child Labor in India

Legislation
Age that
regula- tions
apply
What it says
The Factories Act 7
Working hours limited to
9 hours
The Factories Act 9
Working hours limited to
7 hours
The Mines Act 12 Specifcally for mines
The Factories Act 9
Work in certain
dangerous processes
Prohibited
The Factories
(Amendment) Act
15
Working hours limited to
6 hours
The Indian Mines Act 13
Raised the age to 13
years
The Factories
(Amendment) Act
15
Working in two separate
factories on
same day prohibited
The Indian Ports Act 12
Related to child labour
handling goods
At ports
The Tea Districts
(Emigrant Labour) Act

Migration was prohibited
without
Parents
The Children (Pledging of
Labour) Act

First law against bonded
labour
The Factories
(Amendment) Act
12-15
Employment prohibited in
certain areas
And employment hours
restricted to 5 hrs.
The Mines Amendment
Act
15 Working hours regulated
to 10 hours
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Above ground and 9
hours below
The Employment of
Children Act
13
Handling of goods allowed
for 12-14 age
The Factories Act 14
Concerning employment
in government
Establishments
Employment of Children
(Amendment) Act
17
Prohibited working for 15-
17 at ports
And railways
The Plantations Labour
Act
12
Prohibited working of
children under 12
The Mines Act 15
Required medical
certifcate for
Underground work
The Factories
(Amendment) Act
17 Prohibited work at nights
The Merchant Shipping
Act
15
Prohibits work on ship
except in certain
Areas
The Motor Transport
Worker Act
15
Prohibits working in any
motor transport
Undertaking
The Apprentices Act 14
Prohibits
apprenticeship/training
The Beedi and Cigar
Workers (Conditions of
Employment) Act
14
Prohibits working in
tobacco factories
Employment of Children
(Amendment) Act
15
Prohibits working on and
near railway
Premises
The Child Labour
(Prohibition and
Regulation) Act
14 Most comprehensive
Bans employment in
specifed industries
Regulates the working
condition where
78
Not prohibited
Uniformity on defnition
of child in
Related laws

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OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
To study the causes of child labour in Aligarh.
To counter the problem faced by the child labour.
To study the present condition of the child labour.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To evaluate the data and to collect the required information for the
presentation of the condition of child labour in India.
Secondary data are here by collected by the internet and available
constitutional
Document regarding the provision of the child labour.
A due and authentic survey regarding the evaluation of the primary
data was performed all over Aligarh and a visual data was
evaluated to represent the presence and position of child labour in
our society.
For the present study in Aligarh was selected. A total of 29 child
labour out of 100.
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FINDINGS
Poverty is the main cause of the child labour. Poor parents
send their children to work for reason of economic expediency
and protect from hunger of other small children.
The child labouress are in constants rise which is due to
multiplicity of factors like poverty, population growth,
displacement of the poor from their land, social insecurity,
familial problem, adult unemployment & hunger etc.
There are many norms but not strictly implemented no
education among parents especially Muslim families.
Child labour faced many problems like low wage, high work
burden and night shift work.
Many children are anxious to fnd ways of combining
education with the economic expediency of helping their
families.
A survey of child labour reveals that households economic
pressures compels children to enter in to low wage, hazardous
work environment.
82
Small business are focusing to attain labour which is cheaper
and more work output because on the pressure of competition
in the market and they neglect the welfare activities.
Present condition is shown by visual data
83
PROJECT SURVEY
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
ANALYSIS
Children are anxious to fnd a way of combining with economic
expediency of helping their families.
93
The government provided norm that is strictly implemented
94
The supply of child labour is match with the demand of small
business for cheap and fexible work force.
95
Poor parent send their children to work for reasons of economic
expediency
96
97
SUGGESTION
There is a need to create more awareness regarding
prevention of child labour in our society.
There is need to change the thinking of the people in the
society.
Every child should be in school and enjoy childhood.
There is need to awareness of the society that child has the
right to be protected from work that threatens his or her
health, education or development. The state shall set
minimum age for employment and regulate working
conditions.
There are several rule and regulation to protect child labour
so, it should be implemented strictly by the government.
There is need to awareness about education program with
earning.
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CONCLUSION
The study is an document of view regarding the condition of the
future of a nation And introduction of small childrens into the
hazardous works and industries is an legal ofence and a social and
ethical crime in the society.
Small business are focusing to attain labour which is cheaper and
more work output because on the pressure of competition in the
market and so, they neglect the various norm provided by the
government.
Child labour are in constant rise in India which is due to
multiplicity of factors lie poverty, population growth, social
insecurity and adult unemployment.
Many children are anxious to fnd way of combining education with
the economic expediency of helping their families.
Thus the government has provided with several rule and
regulations but these norms should be implemented strictly by the
government.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Secondary Activities
www.google.com
www.childlabour.com
www.unicef.com
www.wikipedia.com
Primary activities
Project Survey
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