Another main thing that I noticed was the dangerous conditions the children faced whilst working in the factory. I spoke to Adam, who horrifically lost one finger after an accident. “The conditions here are harsh.” He said. “I have already lost one finger when I was cleaning one of the machines, as it got caught in the machinery and had to be chopped off. Many children have had hair cut off, and clothes trapped in the machines. Unlucky ones, like myself, will have to have fingers and arms amputated if the situation becomes worse. It used to be quite scary, but now I’ve got used to it.” I stared and listened in horror as I heard these brave words come out of his mouth. It shocked me to think that a young boy like Adam would have to face these dangerous working conditions, and have to get used to the dangers but I knew that it was the same everywhere and all children that worked in the factories would suffer these consequences.
Education
This subject of education isn’t really a form of cruelty, but I know that all the children that worked would get two hours of education. But I don’t think that it is fair for the children. Just because they worked in a factory doesn’t mean that they do not deserve a chance to have good education to help their future. The education in the factory is very poor, and the ‘teacher’ is just an older member of staff, who doesn’t even have to full qualifications to teach these young kids. How does the younger generation be expected to have skilled jobs when they don’t even get any proper education?
Over Working
The children shouldn’t be working long hours, but factory owners would give a child longer hours to work rather than waste money to employ some other new recruits. Also, even if a child works more hours than requested, he or she would still receive the same amount of pay! So therefore, the children are working harder but not receiving the amount that they earned. I spoke to James, who worked overtime, even though his age is only twelve. He said, “More and more children have been asked to work longer hours but still get the same amount of pay. It isn’t fair – something should be done about it.”
Who is responsible?
Government
The Government hasn’t really done anything to stop cruelty to children. Even though in the past, they have made it a law that children under the age of nine couldn’t work, but there should be more things done. They get a lot of money from the taxes paid by people and so should put it into good use and make stricter punishments to factory owners found guilty of child abuse and cruelty.
Parents
The parents of the children working in the factories also play a role in making child cruelty easier. Some parents send their children to factories to work, and make their child lie about their age so that they can work and earn money to help the family. In the future, there also should be stricter rules and punishments about what to do with irresponsible parents who put their own child in danger. A lesson should be taught to those parents and they should learn to blame themselves if something bad happens to their children.
Overseer
The overseer shouldn’t be so harsh on the children. Even though they have their own job to do, they shouldn’t beat the children so frequently and should find another punishment to punish the children, so that they wouldn’t end up as hurt. Cruelty to children wouldn’t happen as much and children wouldn’t get as hurt if the overseer weren’t as hard and brutal to the young workers working in the factory.
Owner
The owner shouldn’t be tempted to employ younger children to work, and so they should be blamed for the cruelty happening in their own factory. If owners didn’t employ young children, then the percentage of child cruelty will be dropped, and when caught, owners wouldn’t have to face big charges brought up against them.
Recommendations
I think that a lot of things could be done to improve the children’s safety in the factory. Here are a few suggestions: -
There should be more laws made by the government, which should include harsher punishments to the accused, and penalties. This should ensure that factory workers and the factory owners would think twice before employing young children if there was a punishment and a fine brought up against them if they are caught.
The government should employ more inspectors, because at this moment in time, there are only a few inspectors in the whole of the country, and when the inspectors come to the factory, the owners are aware of their presence, and therefore will send home any under age children, and tidy up the factory. As a result, the inspectors don’t get to see what goes on in the factory in everyday life. So, more ‘secret under-cover’ inspectors should be employed, and they should use another identity to approach the factory, so then they will get to see what actually goes on everyday.
It should be made law that a highly educated teacher will be at every factory, so that the younger children will get a chance to be educated, and therefore will have a chance to get qualifications that they need, ensuring that they have a fair chance in life to be what they want to be when they are grown up and not let the lack of education affect their future lives.
There should be a system in the factory that makes sure that young children do not have to work longer hours. If they are forced to, then they are entitled to complain to the government, and if there is enough proof, the owner will have to pay the compensation fees. This will ensure that owners will not make young children work longer than they are meant to.
Before employing children, owners should have a right to ask the child’s parents for proof of their actual age. This evidence should then be stored in the factory’s records, so that when the inspectors come, they can check to see if a child is under age or not.
There should be a rule that if a child gets beaten badly and needs medication, or they were beaten for no reason at all, then the child can claim money from the owner and get paid holiday for the days that he or she is off work. By making this rule, owners wouldn’t severely punish the children unless it is absolutely necessary.
There should be more safety features to the machinery used in the factory. This would make sure that it would be safe for the workers operating the machines, and also for the children who clean the machines. Also, if a child is cleaning any type of machinery, all the power must be switched off, and a person should be standing near the machine on guard, to make sure that there wouldn’t be any accidents.
If these above acts are passed and made legal, then this would definitely ensure the safety of all the workers working in the factories, as well as the safety of the children. By doing this, we will be sure that everything is done fairly, and no one will be treated unkindly for something that they didn’t do. This will ensure the safety of all children working in factories and we will be reassured that the future of these workers is better and these changes will help everyone, from the owners of the factory, to the future of the next generation.
