Oliver Twist by C. Dickens from literature to reality Oliver Twist by C. Dickens & CHILD LABOR Manjola Islami V BLS

the Victorian Age: a contradictory period On one hand it was the age of progress, stability, and great social reforms… … On the other it was also characterized by poverty, injustice and social unrest

Industrial Revolution Overcrowded urban environment ‘mushroom towns’ and slum districts Lack of public services and polluted atmospheres Terrible working and living conditions High rate of mortality Employment of women and children Technologies Inventions (spinning jenny, water frame, steam engine) New factories near coal fields New waterways and improvement of road conditions

Literature and C. Dickens The main topics of the Victorian novel were: Class Social changes (industrial revolution, struggle for democracy, growth of town) Childhood and education The workers’ conditions of life Materialist philosophy Dickens was the most successful of the English Victorian novelists. He is admire Dickens for his: fertility of character creation depiction of childhood and youth comic creations

Childhood Childhood in the Victorian age was generally a cruel experience. Children were compelled to work from very young ages and for long hours in polluted and unsafe environment. No one cared about their health, and if they got hurt, they would have been simply replaced – and so even if they were too grown up. Because of the misery wage they received, a lot of them developed snatch skills and became criminals. In workhouses they find themselves 'hired out' - sold- to work in factories or mines or work in the local community as domestic servants and farm laborers. Their education did not include the two most important skills of all: reading and writing, which were needed to get a good job.

Why? poor families → parents sent their children to work → get some money factory owners needed cheap, malleable and fast-learning employees death or abandon by men → pressure on mothers → send their children out to work

“Solutions” the Factory Act (1833): Children under 9 years old could not work in the textile factories Children between 9 and 13 could only work 8 hours a day, with a 1 hour lunch break, and 2 hours of education a day Children between 14 and 18 could not work more than 12 hours a day, with a 1 hour lunch break Children under 18 could not work at night Regular inspections of the factories and workplaces the Ten Hours Act (1847) tried to improve children’s working conditions by limiting the working hours to 10 hours per day

some data…

Child sleeve nowadays Today even if it is illegal, child labor is still heavily present. Indeed about 246 millions children are exploited, among of whom 73 millions are less than 10 years old. It is concentrated mainly in the poorest areas backward countries of the planet (China, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Africa, Brasil). About 127 millions of children less than 14 years old compelled to work, live in Asian or Pacific areas; but the majority is accounted in Africa. But industrial country aren’t excluded, where about 2,5 millions of children are exploited.

Where? Millions of children are employed in various forms of dangerous work, such as working in coal-mines or tea plantations, in contact with chemicals or with dangerous machinery. Child soldiers is even widely spread. Especially girls are employed in domestic work which often becomes slavery Important industries that exploit children are: Nike, Adidas, Mattel, Chicco, Benetton, Reebok, Levis, Chiquita, Nestlé.

Solution After the ONU Convention (in New York on November 20th 1989) about the rights of the child many States have abolished child labor. But this phenomena is still present in many countries.

Symbols In the Victorian age the character of Oliver Twist represents the figure of a little hero who advances in front of the enemy without any hesitation. Nowadays Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani child, embodies the symbol against child sleeve.