Nepal

The Country

Nepal is located in Asia specifically south Asia with India and China as its neighbouring countries. Its capital is Kathmandu and its population is around 29,890,686. As of 2010, Nepal has around 25.2% of its people under the poverty line and its main industries are tourism, garment, food and drink, metal manufactures and herbs. The country earns money through exports of carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain, herbs, tea, coffee, steel, cement, business processing outsourcing, software, information technology, furniture, cardamoms, clothes etc. Nepal is considered a poor 3rd world country being one of the least developed countries in the world. Nepal besides having child labour as an issue also has to deal with poverty, unemployment, violence, crime, drug peddling, girl trafficking and environmental pollution.

Child Labour in the Industrial Revolution

During the industrial revolution, a majority of children were involved in child labour and children were especially useful in the textile factories, mine shafts and as chimney sweeps. In the textile factories, young children were used as ‘scavengers’ or ‘

In the textile factories, young children were used as ‘scavengers’ or ‘piecers’. Scavengers had to pick

up the loose cotton from under the machinery. This was dangerous because the children were expected to do the task while the machine was still running. Working in the textile industry meant that the fluff and microscopic fibres from the air would get into your lungs and that you could become deaf from the noise from the looms and other machines.

If you worked in the mine shafts you were usually quite small as the mines were very small spaces and the days consisted of pushing and pulling carts all day long. People who worked in the mine shafts worked from the dark of the morning to the dark of the night and suffered from black lung which is caused by pollution from coal burning. People who worked here also had to endure having their growth stunted and deformed bodies as well as dying young.

The general facts about child labour in this time would consist of very rough, cruel and unsafe working conditions. Most factory owners cared very little about the people who worked for them and beat them as well as paying their workers as low as possible to make more profit for themselves. Workers were often forced to work long overtime hours for no extra pay and often forced to take part of their wages in poor quality food instead of money. In Britan, during the time of the industrial revolution, it was illegal to have children work over 12 hours a day and to have children under 9 in the textile industry but there were no inspectors to make sure that these rules were followed to business owners were able to get away with this.

Although child labour was and still bad at this time there were whole families living in single rooms which shows how little money people had so banning child labour does mean that the children don’t have to deal with these problems at such a young age but it also means that families will have less money than they already do. Which leads to the families not having enough money to buy food or things that they need which could result in deaths.

Child Labour in Nepal 

In Nepal, it is estimated that 1.60 million children in the 5-17 age group fall into the category of child labour, although the minimum working age is 14. Most of these children were forced into working because they need to pay for school, they need money to survive to pay off family debts or because they are sold or forced into it by strangers and family members. Many children in Nepal are engaged in many different hazardous and cruel work environments including agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, mining and construction, transport and freight handling as well as craft and trade. Agriculture being the most common. In general children from rural areas are less exposed to hazardous work conditions than children from urban areas.

Among children that are working in hazardous work conditions almost 56.8% are able to attend school, some children, however, are removed from schooling and forced into the workforce. Children in Nepal work around 15 hours a day and spend an average of 3.7 hours per week doing unpaid household chores such as cooking, cleaning, minor repairs, shopping and caring and child minding.

The textile and garment industry is a very popular industry that employs children. Children working in this industry have to endure long work hours and work with dangerous tools, machinery or chemicals while in small workshops or homes which may include dangerous chemicals and sharp objects. They also have to work in cramped conditions with low lighting, long hours, poor hygiene conditions as well as working heavy machinery and carrying heavy loads of material. The children work extremely long days stitching knots until their fingers bleed

Similarities and Differences

There are more similarities than differences sadly. The rough and unsafe work conditions are one of the biggest similarities. During the industrial revolution, children had to work long hours in unsafe conditions where they could get hurt, get sick or die which is the same as in Nepal. Children in both times had/have to work to help support their families or themselves and get forced into working. In Nepal, the textile industry is very popular just like in Britain, but instead of cleaning up the factories and fixing things like in Britan the children of Nepal are the ones weaving the threads. Another difference is in Britain the working age in the textile industry was 9 but in Nepal, it is 14. Although neither of these were/are regulated it shows that Nepal is at least showing some more protection for these kids

Attempts to Reform Child Labour

There have been many attempts to combat Child Labour worldwide. Organisations such as ‘Free the Children’ and ‘SCREAM’ have been and have worked on saving children from the terrible fate of becoming child labourers. In 1833 there was a child labour act during the industrial revolution that helped the child labourers and made them able to work in better conditions which I briefly talked about but again it didn’t have much effect as these rules were not monitured. in some people’s cases this was a good thing but for other people, this made surviving much harder because their families didn’t/don’t have the extra salary coming in.

Citations 

Cranny, Michael. Crossroads: Meeting of Nations. Toronto: Pearson Education, 1998. Print.

International Labour Organization and Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal. “Nepal Child Labour Report.” N.p., 2012. Web. <http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—asia/—ro-bangkok/—ilo-kathmandu/documents/publication/wcms_182988.pdf>.

“Where Is Nepal?” N.p., 2016. Web. <www.worldatlas.com/as/np/where-is-nepal.html>.

“Economy of Nepal.” N.p., 2 Apr. 2017. Web. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nepal>.

Simkin, John. “Scavengers in the Textile Industry.” Spartacus Educational Publishers, 1997-2016. Web. <http://spartacus-educational.com/IRscavengers.htm>.

L, Sage. “Child Labor in Nepal Compared To the Industrial Revolution.” N.p., 19 Jan. 2014. Web. <http://myriverside.sd43.bc.ca/sagel-2013/2014/01/19/child-labor-in-nepal-compared-to-the-industrial-revolution/>.

https://fashionunited.uk/v1/fashion/textile-industry-child-labor-still-common/2013100812754