Child Labour | Fisek Institute Science & Action Foundation for Child Labor

By Prof. Dr. A. Gurhan Fisek

In 1776, one of the initiatives of the human rights conventions, the Virginia Declaration of Rights was adopted by the Virginia Constitutional Convention in USA. It does not mention anything about the child labour rights and working environments.

In 1789, the well-known Universal Declaration of the Human and Civic Rights was adopted in France. It does not mention anything about the child labour rights and working environments, either.

Even so, during this period in which Industrial Revolution was on the ascent, children were broadly employed in various European countries, first of all in England. Sismondi was talking about the “interruption of generations”.^¹Without hiding anything, various researchers (physicians) wereputting forth the working conditions for consideration and the factthat both children and women were part of the labour force.

Percival Pott (1714-1788) was first to describe the scrotum cancer cells which occurred among chimney sweeps due to their cleaning the soot and other residue from chimneys and fireplaces. During that period, it was the child workers who were employed for cleaning the chimneys.

Thomas Percival (1740-1804) led the group of physicians in order to carry out researches on typhus, which was a widespread social problem and which wiped out the labour force at that period in England. He disseminated both this call-up and the report on children’s working hours and conditions even to the relatively distant regions.

Besides, many researches realised by the physicians of the age put forth the absolute necessity and urgency in regard to the protection of child labourers. Passed by the English Parliament in 1802, the “Health and Morals Act for the Apprentices” was one of the outcomes of such efforts. The sentences coming into effect with this Act give us an opportunity to elaborate the conditions in which child workers were employed at that period. As required by the Act, it was determined that:

No apprentice should be kept at work more that 12 hours a day;
No apprentice should be kept at work at nights;
If apprentices are boarding employees, an employer is required to keep the apartments of male and female apprentices distinct;
Apprentices should be supported in regard to their learning how to read and write;
Apprentices should receive two suits of clothes each year.
Now we are in the 2000’s. Child labour problem is still persisting. Moreover, the studies on that matter are lesser in amount than the ones of the 19^th century. Yet, what designates the fate of child workers is the researches and directing enterprises realised on that matter.

In 1989, during the process in which Child Rights Convention has been ratified, the group that was summoned to the meeting by the Ministry of State brought up significant principles to be considered:

Child labour problem cannot be eliminated unless radical transformation would be realised in economic, social and cultural spheres;

Insistent pressures on that matter would make children to be in more vulnerable conditions;

Delaying children’s involvement in working life, it is one of the most important measures that compulsory education period should be raised to 8 years;

In order to assist children to acquire work-related skills, work-related and technical lessons should be taught in the primary schools and applicable courses should be arranged.

In order to make reliable policies on child labour problem, a regular monitoring committee should be formed for the sustenance of co-ordination, and etc.

Children working in the agricultural sector are vulnerable and unprotected both in terms of health risks and social security issues. Therefore, necessary legal arrangements on that matter should be materialised before all else.

Although many years have passed and Turkey has ratified the Convention, the application guide in which the above mentioned sentences taken place has not even been touched upon.

Carried out by Fisek Institute in 1985 and supported by Meawards accordingly, the research on the “Medico-social Problems of Child Workers” was the first comprehensive study dealing with the industrial child workers. The facts collected throughout the study were represented in various articles and congress papers.

Child labour is still one of the major problems in Turkey. However, child labour is not a one-dimensional problem. On the one hand, employers consider cheap and docile labour necessary; on the other hand, people necessitate child labour in order to get rid of poverty and insecurity. Furthermore, one can observe a tendency of the public power to avoid and break the social policies.

All of these make the elimination of child labour difficult, and delay the solutions. It can be considered that the studies on child labour can be treated under two steps, as long-term and short-term objectives:

LONG-TERM OBJECTIVE: Elimination of child labour… Without underscoring the economic conditions, radical transformations (social foresights) are required by means of presenting the conditions in which children are employed, presenting the future situation and the probable problems.

SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVE: Until the long-term objectives are totally attained, health-related and social precautions are required to be taken in order to diminish the problems of child workers. These are the model studies at first, then the precautions urgently widespread at the national scale. Before the elimination of the factors that push children to be involved in working life, the small-scale solutions should be preferred that are also narrow in scope.

During these days, in which human rights issues are widely discussed, children, whose families are not provided with opportunities to meet their basic needs and whose life standards are not raised to the ones of the urban conditions, go into the working life without attending to their schools.

As that point, the society has a debt of loyalty for the working children whose ties with the formal education are severed; who work as a full-time employee at the industrial regions; and who struggle for guaranteeing their today and tomorrow. Because, they are not provided with occupational formal education opportunities that are strengthened through the opportunities to find a job.

With respect to the studies on the situation of child workers in working life, first sine qua non evaluation is the evaluation of their “compatibility with the job” in which they are employed. There three major points indicating whether children are compatible with the job or not.
1. Volunteerism in regard to starting to a job;
2. Frequency of changing their jobs and the reasons behind;
3. Inclination for returning back to school.
Children, in general, start to be involved in working life voluntarily. However, as time passes, their desire to return back to school becomes intensified; and if they are dissatisfied with their jobs, the risks they would face and their uneasiness increase in line with the increase in the number of jobs they’ve changed.

Another essential evaluation concerning the child labour problem is the one related with their working environment. Insofar as their age is concerned, they are much more sensitive and fragile physiologically; and hence, working in inconvenient conditions has significant implications both with respect to their health and future, and to their future kids’ health and future.

We may appropriate working condition evaluations for the two scale of analysis:
1. Working on the Basis of Legal Working Hours “Appropriated for the Adult Workers”.
  1. Daily
  2. Weekly
1. Complying with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations “Appropriated for the Adult Workers”
  1. Health and Security Regulations that are Commonly Implemented or not Implemented;
  2. Occupational Health and Safety Indicators
For this evaluation, it may be found strange at the first sight that as a criterion, we adopt the regulations “appropriated for adults”. However, if one carefully scrutinises about the facts presented, s/he may see that in Turkey, the health and safety regulations are not fully implemented at workplaces, even for adults.