Estructuración de la participación de los Círculos Comunitarios

There is a long history behind children‟s oppression and dehumanisation, as noticed between 1500 and 1700, however the era of the Industrial Revolution also witnessed a

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surge in the oppression of children (Bourdillon 2000:5; cf. Horrel &Humphries 1995:486-487; Annabel 2010).³⁸

6.2.1 The Industrial Revolution 1600-1700

The beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Europe prompted families to move to crowded cities in search for work. Working in factories for children was not friendly, with long hours using large, heavy and dangerous equipment. Like women, they experienced harsh treatment, few rewards, illness and injury in their workplace (Fyfe 1989:15). During the industrial revolution children of six years old worked in large factories for up to 19 hours a day, with a 1 hour break per day (Humphries 2010:2). The Factory Act of 1833 did not change or improve the conditions (Nardinelli 1980:741), but rather the Industrial Revolution led to a population increase. Childhood mortality rates, although infant mortality rates were reduced markedly (Annabel 2010).³⁹

Under harsh work conditions children experienced cruel treatment, such as beatings, verbal abuse and other forms of pain infliction (Annabel 2010). Harsh work conditions included children being killed when they dozed off or fell into the path of carts. Others died from gas explosions, while many developed lung cancer and other diseases and died before the age of 25 (Horrel & Humphries 1995:486; cf. Annabel2010). Children lost hands or limbs and were crushed under the machines, or decapitated (Annabel 2010). Young girls worked at match factories, where phosphorus fumes would cause many to develop phossy jaw, while children employed at the glassworks were regularly burned or blinded. Those working in potteries were vulnerable to poisonous clay dust (Annabel 2010).

38Annabel, Venning, (17 September 2010). "Britain's child slaves: They started at 4am, lived off acorns and had nails put through their ears for shoddy work. Yet, says a new book, their misery helped forge Britain".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1312764/Britains-child-slaves-New-book-says-misery-helped-forge-Britain.html. Accessed 19 September 2010.

39Ibid.

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6.2.2 African Slavery

Child exploitation was not only a practice in Western countries, as African children also experienced it in many forms. Independence of African countries in the twentieth century were accompanied by a scramble for power, with disputes on who should lead the state (Shumbamnini 2008:93). Children were caught in this scramble, as countries such as Mozambique (contested by FRELIMO and RENAMO); Zimbabwe (contested by ZANU P.F and ZAPU P.F), Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Rwanda; Ethiopia and Eritrea. Children have been involved in conflicts and wars, and as child soldiers many have witnessed the slaughter of their parents, come across corpses and themselves been beaten (Shumbamnini 2008:93). Many children have been orphaned and remain destitute.

6.2.3 Child labour

Child labour is a problem that began during the early phase of industrialisation and capitalism, becoming more visible during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century in Europe (Grier 2009:297). Concern grew as children as young as 10 years old and below were recruited to work in mills, factories and mines, for long hours under dangerous conditions and for little pay (Horrel &Humphries 1995:486-487; cf. Bourdillon 2000:5).

Advocates of child labour began to condemn this practice due to its harmful effect on physical and psychological health (Annabel, 2010). The Industrial Revolution machines took over the functions formally performed by hand and concentrated them in large factories (Annabel 2010). Children as young as five were employed in large numbers to operate machines, particularly in the textile industry, hauling heavy loads of textiles (Annabel 2010) or climbing amongst fast-moving looms. Factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Other children worked underground in coal mines, in dark, damp, dusty conditions, carrying heavy loads of coal on their backs without protective clothing (Annabel 2010).

Those who condemned child labour included Karl Marx and Charles Dickens, themselves victims of child labour. Charles Dickens‟s Oliver Twist, published in 1839, is a story about the eponymous orphan who led a miserable life in a workhouse. He escapes to London where he joins a gang of juvenile pickpockets, at first naively unaware of their unlawful activities (Dickens 1839). Dickens exposure of the cruel treatment of many a waif in

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London helped increase international concern for what is sometimes known as “The Great London Waif Crisis”. The book‟s subtitle, The Parish Boy's Progress, alludes to Bunyan‟s The Pilgrim‟s Progress and also to popular 18th-century caricatures by William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress and A Harlot's Progress.⁴⁰ The church lagged behind and was divided during this era. Some churches, such as the Roman Catholic and Anglican were non-committal, not seeing the problems of industrialisation early enough (Vidmar 2005:303), while some responded and took a stand, particularly Methodism under the leadership of John Wesley and John Whitefeld, who contributed to the formation of trade unions by teaching the labouring classes forms of protest and leadership skills (Dreyer 1999).

Whilst Dickens helped alert the international community to the cruelties of child labour, Britain was the first to pass laws regulating child labour, as between 1802 and 1878 a series of laws gradually shortened working hours, improved conditions, and raised the age at which children could work (Nardinelli 1980:751). Other European countries adopted similar laws,⁴¹ though the USA took many years to outlaw and criminalise child labour. In 1918 and 1922 the U.S. Congress passed laws, but the Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional (Mishra 2010).⁴² In 1924 the Congress proposed a constitutional amendment prohibiting child labour, but the states did not ratify it, then, in 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labour Standards Act, which fixed minimum ages of 16 for work during school hours, 14 for certain jobs after school, and 18 for dangerous work. By 1899 a total of 28 states had passed laws regulating child labour (Douglas & Hackman 1939).⁴³

In Africa, the issue of child labour is currently still being debated, with the majority of African countries predominantly rural and still subsisting on household production (Andvig, Canagarajah & Kielland 2001:1). Moreover, Africa has many cultural factors and norms that make the issue of child labour debatable. Most labour or children‟s work occurs in their homes, which some scholars argue is part of a child‟s socialisation rather than harmful work. For instance, Bourdillon (2000:9) argues that children‟s work in family environments is a form of playful imitation that facilitates and empowers children to grow in competence and confidence. Work which occurs outside children‟s homes may have

40http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist accessed on 13 August 2012,

41http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/history-child-laboraccessed on 13 August 2012

42Ibid.

43Ibid.

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characteristics of child labour, however it is beneficial as “it is a means of survival, and often of education” (Bourdillon 2009:296).

Though the purpose of child labour is debatable in Africa, its signs became visible during the colonial era, when “the initial years of colonial rule...increased demand for labour in peasant-dominated Africa [which] was...met by expanding the use of unfree labour, largely children and adolescents” (Grier 2009:298). Children were easy targets as when colonialists came to Africa they found children engaged in labour services, such as farming, herding, trading, hunting, mining, manufacturing and even fighting in military organisations. As a result, colonial economies moved forward on this pre-colonial foundation by incorporating children‟s labour into the production of goods for a rapidly industrialising Europe (Grier 2009:298). The end of the 19^th century to the beginning of at least two decades into the 20^th century saw colonial masters raiding homes and capturing children and adults for human trafficking to work on their farms. Children were targeted as they were easier than adults to capture, transport, control, and absorb or adapt to new lives as obedient labourers (Grier 2009:298). Children were also easy to disguise as adopted or wards, with some girls being taken as child brides for traffickers and farmers because of

“their double reproductive value: they were not only farm laborers but were also porters potential wives and reproducers of the labour force” (Grier 2009:298).

African children, as with European children, therefore needed protection from evil practices that contributed to the formation of international, regional and domestic laws on children‟s rights.