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168-495: Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation worldwide, although these laws do not consider all work by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties, supervised training, and some forms of work undertaken by Amish children, as well as by Indigenous children in

336-429: A breadwinner , as a result of death or abandonment, obliging many children to work from a young age. In England and Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were described as children. A high number of children also worked as prostitutes . The author Charles Dickens worked at the age of 12 in a blacking factory, with his family in a debtor's prison . Child wages were often low,

504-683: A coal preparation plant . Technical and economic feasibility are evaluated based on the following: regional geological conditions; overburden characteristics; coal seam continuity, thickness, structure, quality, and depth; strength of materials above and below the seam for roof and floor conditions; topography, especially altitude and slope; climate; land ownership as it affects the availability of land for mining and access; surface drainage patterns; groundwater conditions; availability of labor and materials; coal purchaser requirements in terms of tonnage, quality, and destination; and capital investment requirements. Surface mining and deep underground mining are

672-697: A 70% increase over the 20 years since 1999. In 2018, the world production of brown coal (lignite) was 803.2 Mt, with Germany the world's largest producer at 166.3 Mt. China is most likely the second largest producer and consumer of lignite globally although specific lignite production data is not made available. Coal production has grown fastest in Asia, while Europe has declined. Since 2011, world coal production has been stable, with decreases in Europe and US offset by increases from China, Indonesia and Australia. The top coal mining nations are: Energy production from coal mining

840-404: A capitalist economy, workers are paid according to this value and value is the source of all wealth. Value is determined by a good's particular utility for an actor and if the good results from human activity, it must be understood as a product of concrete labour, qualitatively defined labour. Capitalists are able to purchase labour power from the workers, who can only bring their own labour power in

1008-462: A capitalist society, the exploited are the proletariat , and the exploiters would typically be the bourgeoisie . For Marx, the phenomenon of exploitation was a characteristic of all class-based societies, not only capitalism. In the Marxist critique of political economy, exploiters appropriate another's surplus labour , which is the amount of labour exceeding what is necessary for the reproduction of

1176-413: A child's work is usually crucial for his or her own survival or for that of the household. Income from working children, even if small, may be between 25 and 40% of the household income. Other scholars such as Harsch on African child labour, and Edmonds and Pavcnik on global child labour have reached the same conclusion. While poverty is a significant factor, the relationship between poverty and child labor

1344-440: A coal mine and its structures are a colliery , a coal mine is called a "pit", and above-ground mining structures are referred to as a " pit head ". In Australia , "colliery" generally refers to an underground coal mine. Coal mining has had many developments in recent years, from the early days of men tunneling, digging, and manually extracting the coal on carts to large open-cut and longwall mines. Mining at this scale requires

1512-467: A coal seam occurring near the top of a ridge or hill, the entire top is removed in a series of parallel cuts. Overburden is deposited in nearby valleys and hollows. This method usually leaves the ridge and hilltops as flattened plateaus. The process is highly controversial for the drastic changes in topography, the practice of creating head-of-hollow-fills , or filling in valleys with mining debris, and for covering streams and disrupting ecosystems. Spoil

1680-449: A daily basis. In Brazil, the minimum working age has been identified as fourteen due to constitutional amendments that passed in 1934, 1937, and 1946. Yet due to a change in the dictatorship by the military in the 1980s, the minimum age restriction was reduced to twelve but was reviewed due to reports of dangerous and hazardous working conditions in 1988. This led to the minimum age being raised once again to 14. Another set of restrictions

1848-556: A factor of production, if it receives less than its marginal product. Exploitation can only occur in imperfect capitalism due to imperfect competition, with the neoclassical notion of productivity wages there is little to no exploitation in the economy. This blames monopoly in the product market, monopsony in the labour market and cartellization as the main causes for exploitation of workers. In his discussion of neoclassical exploitation, Nicholas Vrousalis argues that monopoly and monopsony are unnecessary to exploitation, as exploitation

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2016-467: A fair profit on the risk of capital investment and allow for the efforts of management be paid their due. David Ramsay Steele argues that marginal productivity theory renders Marx's theory of exploitation untenable. According to this theoretical framework and assuming competitive market conditions, a worker's compensation is determined by his or her contribution to marginal output. Similarly, owners of machines and real estate are compensated according to

2184-414: A general principle like other theorists do when addressing exploitation. The general neoclassical view sees that all factors can be simultaneously rewarded according to their marginal productivity: this means that factors of production should be awarded according to their marginal productivity as well, Euler's theorem for homogeneous function of the first order proves this: The production function where K

2352-399: A good, with their revenue or wages, for an amount unequal to the total labour he or she has put forth. This labour performed by a population over a certain time period is equal to the labour embodied to the goods that make up the net national product (NNP). The NNP is then parceled out to the members of the population in some way and this is what creates the two groups, or agents, involved in

2520-403: A greater proportion of the coal deposit than underground methods, as more of the coal seams in the strata may be exploited. This equipment can include the following: Draglines which operate by removing the overburden, power shovels, large trucks in which transport overburden and coal, bucket wheel excavators, and conveyors. In this mining method, explosives are first used in order to break through

2688-472: A higher amount of energy per unit mass, specific energy or massic energy, and can often be obtained in areas where wood is not readily available. Though it was used historically as a domestic fuel, coal is now used mostly in industry, especially in smelting and alloy production, as well as electricity generation . Large-scale coal mining developed during the Industrial Revolution , and coal provided

2856-440: A land use condition is not equal to the original use. Existing land uses (such as livestock grazing, crop and timber production) are temporarily eliminated in mining areas. High-value, intensive-land-use areas like urban and transportation systems are not usually affected by mining operations. If mineral values are sufficient, these improvements may be removed to an adjacent area. Strip mining eliminates existing vegetation, destroys

3024-440: A large dining-room table, but with hydraulic jacks for legs. After the large pillars of coal have been mined away, the mobile roof support's legs shorten and it is withdrawn to a safe area. The mine roof typically collapses once the mobile roof supports leave an area. There are six principal methods of underground mining: Coal is mined commercially in over 50 countries. 7,921 million metric tons (Mt) of coal were produced in 2019,

3192-552: A man's free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness" and so when the labourer works under external control "we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is". Both the Milgram and Stanford experiments have been found useful in the psychological study of wage-based workplace relations. Additionally, Marxists posit that labour as commodity, which

3360-447: A method that currently accounts for about 60 percent of world coal production. In deep mining, the room and pillar or bord and pillar method progresses along the seam, while pillars and timber are left standing to support the mine roof. Once room and pillar mines have been developed to a stopping point limited by geology, ventilation, or economics, a supplementary version of room and pillar mining, termed second mining or retreat mining ,

3528-408: A model to deal with exploitation in all modes of production, hoping to lay the foundations for an analysis of the laws of motion of socialism. In his works published in the 1980s, Roemer posits a model of exploitation based upon unequal ownership of human (physical labour skills) and non-human property (land and means of production). He states that this model of property rights has great superiority over

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3696-516: A more equitable treatment of producers and workers, therefore minimizing exploitation of labour forces in developing countries. The exploitation of labour is not limited to the aforementioned large scale corporate outsourcing, but it can also be found within the inherent structure of local markets in developing countries like Kenya. Wage labour as institutionalized under today's market economic systems has been criticized, especially by both mainstream socialists and anarcho-syndicalists , utilising

3864-524: A quadrilateral relation between four relevantly distinct parties: the state, the exploited, the exploiter and those who suffer rights violations. However, it can be argued that the state's interests with the exploiters action can be viewed as unimpeachable because you cannot imply that the exploiter would ever withhold consent from exploiting due to altruistic concerns. So this trilateral conception of exploitation identifies exploited, exploiters and sufferers of rights violations. In terms of ridding exploitation,

4032-574: A result of occupational exposures is coined occupational hearing loss . To protect miners' hearing, the US Mine Safety and Health Administration 's (MSHA) guidelines for noise place a Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for noise at 90 dBA time-weighted over 8 hours. A lower cutoff, 85 dBA, is set for a worker to fall into the MSHA Action Level which dictates that workers be placed into hearing conservation programs. Noise exposures vary depending on

4200-459: A slave, if not below it". Coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United Kingdom and South Africa ,

4368-400: A specifically liberal as opposed to a Marxist account of the wrongs of exploitation. In response to Roemer, Nicholas Vrousalis has argued that Roemer is right to criticize the labour theory of value, but that does not subtract from the value of Marx's exploitation theory. According to Vrousalis, the correspondence between price and value posited by the original Marxian theory is unnecessary to

4536-403: A subsistence economy, therefore backing the model of exploitation that is based on property rights. He tests his theory of exploitation using game theory to construct contingently feasible alternative states where the exploited agents could improve their welfare by withdrawing with their share of society's alienable and inalienable assets. Feudal, capitalist and socialist exploitation all come from

4704-485: A surface (also called an open cast) mine. Additionally, coal seam thickness and geology are factors in the selection of a mining method. The most economical method of coal extraction for surface mines is the electric shovel or drag line. The most economical form of underground mining is the long wall, which involves using two spinning drums with carbide bits that runs along sections of the coal seam. Many coals extracted from both surface and underground mines require washing in

4872-600: A view, some in the United States propose that the American government should mandate that businesses in foreign countries adhere to the same labour, environmental, health and safety standards as the United States before they are allowed to trade with businesses in the United States (this has been advocated by Howard Dean , for example). According to others, this would harm the economies of less developed nations by discouraging

5040-668: A week and did not attend school. There are also many initiative and policies put in place to decrease the prevalence of child labour such as the United States generalised system of preferences, the U.S.-Cambodia textile agreement, ILO Garment Sector Working Conditions Improvement Project, and ChildWise Tourism. An Ecuadorean study published in 2006 found child labour to be one of the main environmental problems affecting children's health. It reported that over 800,000 children are working in Ecuador, where they are exposed to heavy metals and toxic chemicals and are subject to mental and physical stress and

5208-433: A worker's labour power and basic living conditions. In other terms, this entails the worker being able to maintain living conditions sufficient to be able to continue work. Marx does not attempt to tie this solely to capitalist institutions as he notes how historically, there are accounts of this appropriation of surplus labour in institutions with forced labour, like those based on slavery and feudal societies. However,

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5376-500: Is a means to learn and practice that trade from a very early age. Similarly, in many cultures the education of girls is less valued or girls are simply not expected to need formal schooling, and these girls pushed into child labour such as providing domestic services. Biggeri and Mehrotra have studied the macroeconomic factors that encourage child labour. They focus their study on five Asian nations including India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. They suggest that child labour

5544-443: Is a serious problem in all five, but it is not a new problem. Macroeconomic causes encouraged widespread child labour across the world, over most of human history. They suggest that the causes for child labour include both the demand and the supply side. While poverty and unavailability of good schools explain the child labour supply side, they suggest that the growth of low-paying informal economy rather than higher paying formal economy

5712-540: Is a voluntary bilateral transfer of unequally valued items because the possessors of both items would voluntarily make the transfer if the items to be transferred were of equal value, but in a benefit the possessor of the higher-value item would not voluntarily make the transfer if the items were at equal value. Put simply, the exploitation can be converted to an exchange: both exploiters and exploited would voluntarily become exchangers when benefactors would not. In an exploitation both transfers are voluntary, but part of one of

5880-575: Is accomplished by drilling holes into the overburden, filling the holes with explosives, and detonating the explosive. The overburden is then removed, using large earth-moving equipment, such as draglines , shovel and trucks, excavator and trucks, or bucket-wheels and conveyors. This overburden is put into the previously mined (and now empty) strip. When all the overburden is removed, the underlying coal seam will be exposed (a 'block' of coal). This block of coal may be drilled and blasted (if hard) or otherwise loaded onto trucks or conveyors for transport to

6048-472: Is also the prospect of surplus value arising from sources other than labour and a classic given example is winemaking. When grapes are harvested and crushed, labour is used. However, when yeast is added and the grape juice is left to ferment in order to get wine, the value of wine exceeds that of the grapes significantly, yet labour contributes nothing to the extra value. Marx had ignored capital inputs due to placing them all together in constant capital—translating

6216-494: Is amongst the causes of the demand side. Other scholars too suggest that inflexible labour market, size of informal economy, inability of industries to scale up and lack of modern manufacturing technologies are major macroeconomic factors affecting demand and acceptability of child labour. Systematic use of child labour was commonplace in the colonies of European powers between 1650 and 1950. In Africa, colonial administrators encouraged traditional kin-ordered modes of production, that

6384-877: Is an estimated five million children who are currently working in the field of agriculture which steadily increases during the time of harvest. Along with 30% of children who are picking coffee, there are an estimated 25,000 school age children who work year round. What industries children work in depends on whether they grew up in a rural area or an urban area . Children who were born in urban areas often found themselves working for street vendors, washing cars, helping in construction sites, weaving clothing, and sometimes even working as exotic dancers. While children who grew up in rural areas would work on farms doing physical labour, working with animals, and selling crops. Many children can also be found working in hazardous environments, with some using bare hands, stones and hammers to take apart CRT -based televisions and computer monitors. Of all

6552-410: Is capital and L is labour. Neoclassical theory requires that f be continuously differentiable in both variables and that there are constant returns to scale. If there are constant returns to scale, there will be perfect equilibrium if both capital and labour are rewarded according to their marginal products, exactly exhausting the total product. The primary concept is that there is exploitation towards

6720-427: Is commonly started. Miners remove the coal in the pillars, thereby recovering as much coal from the coal seam as possible. A work area involved in pillar extraction is called a pillar section. Modern pillar sections use remote-controlled equipment, including large hydraulic mobile roof-supports, which can prevent cave-ins until the miners and their equipment have left a work area. The mobile roof supports are similar to

6888-428: Is compatible with perfectly competitive markets. Developing nations , commonly called Third World countries, are the focus of much debate over the issue of exploitation, particularly in the context of the global economy. For example, observers point to cases where employees were unable to escape factories burning down—and thus dying—because of locked doors, a common signal that sweatshop conditions exist, similar to

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7056-410: Is complex. Research suggests that child labor generally decreases as household productive wealth (measured by agricultural per capita land holding in rural areas) increases. However, there can be a significant spike in the relationship between child labor and landholding at moderate levels of land per capita. Lack of meaningful alternatives, such as affordable schools and quality education, according to

7224-418: Is dedicated to mining activities until it can be reshaped and reclaimed. If mining is allowed, resident human populations must be resettled off the mine site; economic activities, such as agriculture or hunting and gathering food and medicinal plants are interrupted. What becomes of the land surface after mining is determined by the manner in which the mining is conducted. Usually reclamation of disturbed lands to

7392-516: Is highly concentrated in certain jurisdictions, which also concentrates much of the social and economic impacts of the industry to these regions. The industry directly employs over seven million workers worldwide, which, in turn, creates millions of indirect jobs. In several parts of the world, producers have reached peak coal as some economies shift away from fossil fuels to address climate change. A 2020 study found that renewables jobs could feasibly be created in these geographies to replace many of

7560-410: Is hiring a household for work not just the adults. Millions of children worked in colonial agricultural plantations, mines and domestic service industries. Sophisticated schemes were promulgated where children in these colonies between the ages of 5 and 14 were hired as an apprentice without pay in exchange for learning a craft. A system of Pauper Apprenticeship came into practice in the 19th century where

7728-412: Is how they regard wage labour, provides an absolutely fundamental point of attack against capitalism. "It can be persuasively argued", noted one concerned philosopher, "that the conception of the worker's labor as a commodity confirms Marx's stigmatisation of the wage system of private capitalism as 'wage-slavery;' that is, as an instrument of the capitalist's for reducing the worker's condition to that of

7896-412: Is materialized necessary labour in regard to workers, like the reproduction of the labour power. Marx called the rate of surplus value an "exact expression of the degree of exploitation of labour power by capital". Many capitalist critics claim that Marx assumes that capital owners contribute nothing to the process of production. They suggest that Marx should have allowed for two things; namely, permit

8064-479: Is mostly used to generate electricity, and 75% of annual coal production is exported, mostly to eastern Asia. In 2007, 428 million tonnes of coal was mined in Australia. In 2007, coal provided about 85% of Australia's electricity production. In the fiscal year 2008/09, 487 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 261 million tonnes was exported. In the fiscal year 2013/14, 430.9 million tonnes of coal

8232-400: Is necessary, but not sufficient. The classical liberal Adam Smith described the exploitation of labour by businessmen, who work together to extract as much wealth as possible out of their workers, thus: What are the common wages of labour, depends everywhere upon the contract usually made between those two parties, whose interests are by no means the same. The workmen desire to get as much,

8400-444: Is needed for children to engage in activities that are crucial for their development. Another issue that often comes into play is the link between what constitutes as child labour within the household due to the cultural acceptance of children helping run the family business. In the end, there is a consistent challenge for the national government to strengthen its grip politically on child labour, and to increase education and awareness on

8568-880: Is often the major cause of the high rate of child labour in India. On 23 June 1757, the English East India Company defeated Siraj-ud-Daula , the Nawab of Bengal, in the Battle of Plassey . The British thus became masters of east India (Bengal, Bihar, Orissa) – a prosperous region with a flourishing agriculture, industry and trade. This led to many children being forced into labour due to the increasing need of cheap labour to produce large numbers of goods. Many multinationals often employed children because that they can be recruited for less pay, and have more endurance to utilise in factory environments. Another reason many Indian children were hired

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8736-672: Is one of the major elements analyzed in Marxian economics and some social theorists consider it to be a cornerstone in Marxist thought. Marx credited the Scottish Enlightenment writers for originally propounding a materialist interpretation of history. In his Critique of the Gotha Program , Marx set principles that were to govern the distribution of welfare under socialism and communism —these principles saw distribution to each person according to their work and needs . Exploitation

8904-417: Is partially economically recoverable. Coal refuse is distinct from the byproducts of burning coal, such as fly ash . Piles of coal refuse can have significant negative environmental consequences, including the leaching of iron, manganese, and aluminum residues into waterways and acid mine drainage . The runoff can create both surface and groundwater contamination. The piles also create a fire hazard, with

9072-593: Is placed at the head of a narrow, steep-sided valley or hollow. In preparation for filling this area, vegetation and soil are removed and a rock drain constructed down the middle of the area to be filled, where a natural drainage course previously existed. When the fill is completed, this underdrain will form a continuous water runoff system from the upper end of the valley to the lower end of the fill. Typical head-of-hollow fills are graded and terraced to create permanently stable slopes. Most coal seams are too deep underground for opencast mining and require underground mining,

9240-665: Is rarely a concept of childhood in the modern sense. Children often begin to actively participate in activities such as child rearing , hunting and farming as soon as they are competent. In many societies, children as young as 13 are seen as adults and engage in the same activities as adults. The work of children was important in pre-industrial societies, as children needed to provide their labour for their survival and that of their group. Pre-industrial societies were characterised by low productivity and short life expectancy ; preventing children from participating in productive work would be more harmful to their welfare and that of their group in

9408-450: Is really worth it. In European history when child labour was common, as well as in contemporary child labour of modern world, certain cultural beliefs have grounded it. Some view that work is good for the character-building and skill development of children. In many cultures, particular where the informal economy and small household businesses thrive, the cultural tradition is that children follow in their parents' footsteps; child labour then

9576-436: Is referred to as 'overburden' and is removed in long strips. The overburden from the first strip is deposited in an area outside the planned mining area and referred to as out-of-pit dumping. Overburden from subsequent strips is deposited in the void left from mining the coal and overburden from the previous strip. This is referred to as in-pit dumping. It is often necessary to fragment the overburden by use of explosives. This

9744-515: Is removed and overburden dumped to the side. Dust, vibration, and diesel exhaust odors are created (affecting sight, sound, and smell). Residents of local communities often find such impacts disturbing or unpleasant. In case of mountaintop removal , tops are removed from mountains or hills to expose thick coal seams underneath. The soil and rock removed is deposited in nearby valleys, hollows and depressions, resulting in blocked (and contaminated) waterways. Removal of soil and rock overburden covering

9912-445: Is sometimes viewed to occur when a necessary agent of production receives less wages than its marginal product. Neoclassical theorists also identify the need for some type of redistribution of income to the poor, disabled, to the farmers and peasants, or whatever socially alienated group from the social welfare function . However, it is not true that neoclassical economists would accept the marginal productivity theory of just income as

10080-701: Is still common, with 4,000 new cases of black lung every year in the US (4 percent of workers annually) and 10,000 new cases every year in China (0.2 percent of workers). The use of water sprays in mining equipment reduces the risk to miners' lungs. Build-ups of a hazardous gas are known as damps, possibly from the German word Dampf which means steam or vapor: Noise is also a contributing factor to potential adverse effects on coal miners' health. Exposure to excessive noise can lead to noise-induced hearing loss . Hearing loss developed as

10248-485: Is the largest employer of child labour. The vast majority of child labour is found in rural settings and informal urban economies; children are predominantly employed by their parents, rather than factories. Poverty and lack of schools are considered the primary cause of child labour. UNICEF notes that "boys and girls are equally likely to be involved in child labour", but in different roles, girls being substantially more likely to perform unpaid household labour. Globally

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10416-433: Is the only of the three that consists of a voluntary bilateral transfer, where the beneficiary receives something at a value greater than zero on the shared scale of value, although at times there can be ambiguity between more complex types of transfer. He describes the three dimensions of transfers as either unilateral/bilateral, voluntary/involuntary and equal/unequal. Despite these types of transfers being able to distinguish

10584-462: Is unclear due to the government categorising child labour data as "highly secret". China has enacted regulations to prevent child labour; still, the practice of child labour is reported to be a persistent problem within China, generally in agriculture and low-skill service sectors as well as small workshops and manufacturing enterprises. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor , where China

10752-435: Is used for both thermal and metallurgical coals . In New South Wales open casting for steam coal and anthracite is practiced. Surface mining accounts for around 80 percent of production in Australia, while in the US it is used for about 67 percent of production. Globally, about 40 percent of coal production involves surface mining. Strip mining exposes coal by removing earth above each coal seam. This earth to be removed

10920-462: Is very dangerous due to the physical and psychological implications that come with these jobs. Yet despite the hazards that come with working with drug dealers, there has been an increase in this area of employment throughout the country. Many factors played a role in Britain's long-term economic growth, such as the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s and the prominent presence of child labour during

11088-426: Is when these two principles are not met, when the agents are not receiving according to their work or needs. This process of exploitation is a part of the redistribution of labour, occurring during the process of separate agents exchanging their current productive labour for social labour set in goods received. The labour put forth toward production is embodied in the goods and exploitation occurs when someone purchases

11256-471: The Mui tsai (妹仔), was rationalised as a cultural tradition and ignored by British authorities. The Dutch East India Company officials rationalised their child labour abuses with, "it is a way to save these children from a worse fate." Christian mission schools in regions stretching from Zambia to Nigeria too required work from children, and in exchange provided religious education, not secular education . Elsewhere,

11424-556: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Others argue that in the absence of compulsion the only way that corporations are able to secure adequate supplies of labour is to offer wages and benefits superior to preexisting options and that the presence of workers in corporate factories indicates that the factories present options which are seen as better—by the workers themselves—than the other options available to them (see principle of revealed preference ). Furthermore,

11592-440: The global energy economy . The major coal producing countries, though, such as China , Indonesia, India and Australia , have not reached peak production, with production increases replacing falls in Europe and the United States and proposed mines under development. The coal mining industry employs almost 2.7 million workers. The History of coal mining goes back thousands of years, with early mines documented in ancient China,

11760-400: The 1860s onward. By the late 20th century, coal was, for the most part, replaced in domestic as well as industrial and transportation usage by oil , natural gas or electricity produced from oil, gas, nuclear power or renewable energy sources. By 2010, coal produced over a fourth of the world's energy. Coal extraction methods vary depending on whether the mine is an underground mine or

11928-460: The 1980s that it was discovered that almost nine million children in Brazil were working illegally and not partaking in traditional childhood activities that help to develop important life experiences. Brazilian census data (PNAD, 1999) indicate that 2.55 million 10- to 14-year-olds were illegally holding jobs. They were joined by 3.7 million 15- to 17-year-olds and about 375,000 5- to 9-year-olds. Due to

12096-501: The Americas. Child labour has existed to varying extents throughout history. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many children aged 5–14 from poorer families worked in Western nations and their colonies alike. These children mainly worked in agriculture, home-based assembly operations, factories, mining , and services such as news boys —some worked night shifts lasting 12 hours. With

12264-769: The Canadian Dominion Statutes in form of so-called Breaches of Contract Act, stipulated jail terms for uncooperative child workers. Proposals to regulate child labour began as early as 1786. Children working at a young age has been a consistent theme throughout Africa. Many children began first working in the home to help their parents run the family farm. Children in Africa today are often forced into exploitative labour due to family debt and other financial factors, leading to ongoing poverty. Other types of domestic child labour include working in commercial plantations , begging, and other sales such as boot shining. In total, there

12432-455: The Caribbean region have lower overall population density, but at 14 million child labourers has high incidence rates too. Accurate present day child labour information is difficult to obtain because of disagreements between data sources as to what constitutes child labour. In some countries, government policy contributes to this difficulty. For example, the overall extent of child labour in China

12600-486: The ILO, is another major factor driving children to harmful labour. Children work because they have nothing better to do. Many communities, particularly rural areas where between 60 and 70% of child labour is prevalent, do not possess adequate school facilities. Even when schools are sometimes available, they are too far away, difficult to reach, unaffordable or the quality of education is so poor that parents wonder if going to school

12768-573: The Roman Empire and other early historical economies. It became important in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries, when it was primarily used to power steam engines, heat buildings and generate electricity. Coal mining continues as an important economic activity today, but has begun to decline due to the strong contribution coal plays in global warming and environmental issues, which result in decreasing demand and in some geographies, peak coal . Compared to wood fuels , coal yields

12936-448: The U.S. In the early 20th century, thousands of boys were employed in glass making industries. Glass making was a dangerous and tough job especially without the current technologies. The process of making glass includes intense heat to melt glass (3,133 °F (1,723 °C)). When the boys are at work, they are exposed to this heat. This could cause eye trouble, lung ailments, heat exhaustion, cuts, and burns. Since workers were paid by

13104-787: The U.S., Examples include the Sago Mine disaster of 2006, and the 2007 mine accident in Utah 's Crandall Canyon Mine , where nine miners were killed and six entombed. In the decade 2005–2014, US coal mining fatalities averaged 28 per year. The most fatalities during the 2005–2014 decade were 48 in 2010, the year of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in West Virginia, which killed 29 miners. Chronic lung diseases, such as pneumoconiosis (black lung) were once common in miners, leading to reduced life expectancy . In some mining countries black lung

13272-608: The US Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show that between 1990 and 2004, the industry cut the rate of injuries by more than half and fatalities by two-thirds. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , even in 2006, mining remained the second most dangerous occupation in America, when measured by fatality rate . These numbers, however, include all mining activities, and oil and gas mining contribute to

13440-428: The United States from investing in them. Milton Friedman was an economist who thought that such a policy would have that effect. According to this argument, the result of ending perceived exploitation would therefore be the corporation pulling back to its developed nation, leaving their former workers out of a job. Groups who see themselves as fighting against global exploitation also point to secondary effects such as

13608-539: The United States. This included children who rolled cigarettes, engaged in factory work, worked as bobbin doffers in textile mills, worked in coal mines and were employed in canneries. Lewis Hine 's photographs of child labourers in the 1910s powerfully evoked the plight of working children in the American south. Hine took these photographs between 1908 and 1917 as the staff photographer for the National Child Labor Committee . Factories and mines were not

13776-564: The age of 14, and from working in hazardous conditions. Exploitation of labour Karl Marx 's theory of exploitation has been described in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as the most influential theory of exploitation. Marx described exploitation as the theft of economic power in all class-based societies , including capitalism, through the working class (or the proletariat, as Marx called them) being forced to sell their labour. The two main perspectives when analysing

13944-457: The age of fifteen years, or fourteen years for light work. Significant levels of child labour appear to be found in Cambodia. In 1998, ILO estimated that 24.1% of children in Cambodia aged between 10 and 14 were economically active. Many of these children work long hours and Cambodia Human Development Report 2000 reported that approximately 65,000 children between the ages of 5 and 13 worked 25 hours

14112-469: The argument goes that if people choose to work for low wages and in unsafe conditions because it is their only alternative to starvation or scavenging from garbage dumps (the "preexisting options"), this cannot be seen as any kind of "free choice" on their part. It also argued that if a company intends to sell its products in the First World, it should pay its workers by First World standards. Following such

14280-401: The capitalist, but was most importantly used to accelerate growth and thus promote a greater system of exploitation. The degree of exploitation of labour power is dictated by the rate of surplus value as the proportion between surplus value/ product and necessary value/product. The surplus value/product is the materialized surplus labour or surplus labour time while the necessary value/product

14448-525: The centrality of labour to the theory of exploitation. Many assume that liberalism intrinsically lacks any adequate theory of exploitation because its phenomenon commits itself only to the primacy of personal rights and liberties and to individual choice as the basic explanatory datum. Hillel Steiner provided an argument to refute the claim that liberalism cannot supply an adequate theory of exploitation. He discusses interpersonal transfers and how there are three types: donation, exchange and theft. Exchange

14616-674: The child workers, the most serious cases involved street children and trafficked children due to the physical and emotional abuse they endured by their employers. To address the issue of child labour, the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child Act was implemented in 1959. Yet due to poverty, lack of education and ignorance, the legal actions were not/are not wholly enforced or accepted in Africa. Other legal factors that have been implemented to end and reduce child labour includes

14784-581: The coal mining jobs as part of a just transition ; however, renewable energy was not suitable in some of the geographies with high concentrations of miners, such as in China, which is far and away the leading coal-mining nation. Coal refuse (also described as coal waste, rock, slag, coal tailings, waste material, rock bank, culm, boney, or gob ) is the material left over from coal mining, usually as tailings piles or spoil tips . For every tonne of hard coal generated by mining, 400 kg (880 lb) of waste material remains, which includes some lost coal that

14952-497: The coal preparation (or wash) plant. Once this strip is empty of coal, the process is repeated with a new strip being created next to it. This method is most suitable for areas with flat terrain. Equipment to be used depends on geological conditions. For example, to remove overburden that is loose or unconsolidated, a bucket wheel excavator might be the most productive. The life of some area mines may be more than 50 years. The contour mining method consists of removing overburden from

15120-857: The coal resource may cause burial and loss of topsoil, exposes parent material, and creates large infertile wastelands. Soil disturbance and associated compaction result in conditions conducive to erosion. Soil removal from the area to be surface-mined alters or destroys many natural soil characteristics, and reduces its biodiversity and productivity for agriculture. Soil structure may be disturbed by pulverization or aggregate breakdown. Top 10 hard and brown coal producers in 2012 were (in million metric tons): China 3,621, United States 922, India 629, Australia 432, Indonesia 410, Russia 351, South Africa 261, Germany 196, Poland 144, and Kazakhstan 122. Coal has been mined in every state of Australia, but mainly in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. It

15288-466: The colonial master neither needed the native parents' nor child's approval to assign a child to labour, away from parents, at a distant farm owned by a different colonial master. Other schemes included 'earn-and-learn' programs where children would work and thereby learn. Britain for example passed a law, the so-called Masters and Servants Act of 1899, followed by Tax and Pass Law, to encourage child labour in colonies particularly in Africa. These laws offered

15456-614: The conditions under which children were employed. Children as young as four were employed in production factories and mines working long hours in dangerous, often fatal, working conditions. In coal mines , children would crawl through tunnels too narrow and low for adults. Children also worked as errand boys, crossing sweepers , shoe blacks, or selling matches, flowers and other cheap goods. Some children undertook work as apprentices to respectable trades, such as building or as domestic servants (there were over 120,000 domestic servants in London in

15624-439: The conventional surplus labour model of exploitation, therefore rejecting the labour theory of value. In his attempt to put forward a theory of exploitation that also includes feudal, capitalist and socialist modes of production, he defines exploitation in each of the modes in terms of property rights. Roemer rejects the labour theory of value because he sees that exploitation can exist in the absence of employment relations, like in

15792-431: The decline of child labour included financial changes in the economy, changes in the development of technology, raised wages, and continuous regulations on factory legislation. In 1933 Britain adopted legislation restricting the use of children under 14 in employment. The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 , defined the term child as anyone of compulsory school age (age sixteen). In general no child may be employed under

15960-429: The developed world. Modern coal mining in the US has an average 23 deaths per year due to mine accidents (2001–2020). However, in lesser developed countries and some developing countries, many miners continue to die annually, either through direct accidents in coal mines or through adverse health consequences from working under poor conditions. China , in particular, has the highest number of coal mining related deaths in

16128-471: The difference he emphasizes is the fact that when this appropriation of surplus labour occurs in societies like capitalist ones, it is occurring in institutions having abolished forced labour and resting on free labour. This comes from Marx's labour theory of value which means that, for any commodity, the price (or wage) of labor power is determined by its cost of production —namely, the quantity of socially necessary labor time required to produce it. In

16296-455: The differences in the four types of transfers, it is not enough to provide a differentiating characterization of exploitation. Unlike theft, an exploitative transfer is bilateral and the items are transferred voluntarily at both unequal and greater-than-zero value. The difference between a benefit and exploitation despite their various shared features is a difference between their counterfactual presuppositions, meaning that in an exploitation there

16464-455: The disruptive activities of blasting, ripping, and excavating coal. Stripping of overburden eliminates and destroys archeological and historic features, unless they are removed beforehand. The removal of vegetative cover and activities associated with the construction of haul roads, stockpiling of topsoil, displacement of overburden and hauling of soil and coal increase the quantity of dust around mining operations. Dust degrades air quality in

16632-497: The dumping of government-subsidized corn on developing world markets which forces subsistence farmers off of their lands, sending them into the cities or across borders in order to survive. More generally, some sort of international regulation of transnational corporations is called for, such as the enforcement of the International Labour Organization 's labour standards. The fair trade movement seeks to ensure

16800-461: The eighteenth century. By the end of the eighteenth century, 20 per cent of the population was made up of children between the ages of 5 and 14. Due to this substantial shift in available workers, and the development of the industrial revolution, children began to work earlier in life in companies outside of the home. Yet, even though there was an increase of child labour in factories such as cotton textiles, there were large numbers of children working in

16968-421: The exchange of goods: exploiters and exploited. According to Marxist economics, the exploiters are the agents able to command goods, with revenue from their income, that are embodied with more labour than the exploiters themselves have put forth—based on the exploitative social relations of Marxist theory of capitalist production . These agents often have class status and ownership of productive assets that aid

17136-420: The exploitation of labour are that of Marx and that of Adam Smith , a classical economist. Smith did not see exploitation as an inherent systematic phenomenon in certain economic systems as Marx did, but rather something that stems from a random occurrence in the chaos of the market, such as a monopoly , that will even out by the tendency of the free market towards equilibrium. Karl Marx ’s exploitation theory

17304-571: The fatalities occurring in the first half of the 20th century. 3,242 died in 1907, the worst year ever; in 2020 there were five. Open cut hazards are principally mine wall failures and vehicle collisions; underground mining hazards include suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse, rock burst , outbursts , and gas explosions. Firedamp explosions can trigger the far more dangerous coal dust explosions, which can engulf an entire mine. Most of these risks are greatly reduced in modern mines, and multiple fatality incidents are now rare in most parts of

17472-411: The field of agriculture and domestic production. With such a high percentage of children working, the rising of illiteracy, and the lack of a formal education became a widespread issue for many children who worked to provide for their families. Due to this problematic trend, many parents developed a change of opinion when deciding whether or not to send their children to work. Other factors that lead to

17640-457: The genetic soil profile, displaces or destroys wildlife and habitat, alters current land uses, and to some extent permanently changes the general topography of the area mined. Adverse impacts on geological features of human interest may occur in a coal strip mine. Geomorphic and geophysical features and outstanding scenic resources may be sacrificed by indiscriminate mining. Paleontological, cultural, and other historic values may be endangered due to

17808-641: The global response that came into force in 1979 by the declaration of the International Year of the Child. Along with the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, these two declarations worked on many levels to eliminate child labour. Although many actions have been taken to end this epidemic, child labour in Africa is still an issue today due to the unclear definition of adolescence and how much time

17976-450: The immediate area, has an adverse impact on vegetative life, and constitutes health and safety hazards for mine workers and nearby residents. Surface mining disrupts virtually all aesthetic elements of the landscape. Alteration of land forms often imposes unfamiliar and discontinuous configurations. New linear patterns appear as material is extracted and waste piles are developed. Different colors and textures are exposed as vegetative cover

18144-459: The incidence of child labour decreased from 25% to 10% between 1960 and 2003, according to the World Bank . Nevertheless, the total number of child labourers remains high, with UNICEF and ILO acknowledging an estimated 168 million children aged 5–17 worldwide were involved in child labour in 2013. Child labour forms an intrinsic part of pre-industrial economies. In pre-industrial societies , there

18312-490: The industrial age. Children who worked at an early age were often not forced; but did so because they needed to help their family survive financially. Due to poor employment opportunities for many parents, sending their children to work on farms and in factories was a way to help feed and support the family. Child labour first started to occur in England when household businesses were turned into local labour markets that mass-produced

18480-442: The industrial exploitation of labour, including child labour. Industrial cities such as Birmingham , Manchester , and Liverpool rapidly grew from small villages into large cities and improving child mortality rates. These cities drew in the population that was rapidly growing due to increased agricultural output. This process was replicated in other industrialising countries. The Victorian era in particular became notorious for

18648-599: The insecurity caused by being at risk of work-related accidents. Minors performing agricultural work along with their parents help apply pesticides without wearing protective equipment. In 2015, the country of India is home to the largest number of children who are working illegally in various industrial industries. Agriculture in India is the largest sector where many children work at early ages to help support their family. Many of these children are forced to work at young ages due to many family factors such as unemployment, large families, poverty, and lack of parental education. This

18816-440: The institutional conditions of exploitation and finds that in general exploitation is considered unjust and to understand why it is necessary to look at the concept of a right, an inviolable domain of practical choice and the way rights are established to form social institutions. Institutional exploitation can be illustrated by schematized forms of exploitation to reach two points: On a liberal view, exploitation can be described as

18984-471: The issue of children working below the legal age limit. With children playing an important role in the African economy, child labour still plays an important role for many in the 20th century. From European settlement in 1788, child convicts were occasionally sent to Australia where they were made to work. Child labour was not as excessive in Australia as in Britain. With a low population, agricultural productivity

19152-404: The long run. In pre-industrial societies, there was little need for children to attend school. This is especially the case in non-literate societies. Most pre-industrial skill and knowledge were amenable to being passed down through direct mentoring or apprenticing by competent adults. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the late 18th century, there was a rapid increase in

19320-552: The main source of primary energy for industry and transportation in industrial areas from the 18th century to the 1950s. Coal remains an important energy source. Coal is also mined today on a large scale by open pit methods wherever the coal strata strike the surface or are relatively shallow. Britain developed the main techniques of underground coal mining from the late 18th century onward, with further progress being driven by 19th-century and early 20th-century progress. However, oil and gas were increasingly used as alternatives from

19488-437: The major growth economies, Maplecroft ranked Philippines 25th riskiest, India 27th, China 36th, Vietnam 37th, Indonesia 46th, and Brazil 54th, all of them rated to involve extreme risks of child labour uncertainties, to corporations seeking to invest in developing world and import products from emerging markets. The ILO suggests that poverty is the greatest single cause behind child labour. For impoverished households, income from

19656-404: The majority of fatalities. Coal mining resulted in 47 fatalities that year. One study, though, has suggested that hazards of modern mining are now more accretive with workers facing long-term health impacts, such as sleep deprivation, that build up over time. Strip mining severely alters the landscape, which reduces the value of the natural environment in the surrounding land. The land surface

19824-417: The marginal productivity of their capital's contribution to marginal output. However, Steele notes that this does not in any way touch the ethical argument of socialists who acknowledge non-labour contributions to marginal output, but contend that it is illegitimate for a class of passive owners to receive an unearned income from ownership of capital and land. Meghnad Desai, Baron Desai observed that there

19992-418: The market. Once capitalists are able to pay the worker less than the value produced by their labour, surplus labour forms and this results in the capitalists' profits. This is what Marx meant by " surplus value ", which he saw as "an exact expression for the degree of exploitation of labor-power by capital, or of the laborer by the capitalist". This profit is used to pay for overhead and personal consumption by

20160-491: The masters to give as little as possible. The former are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter in order to lower the wages of labour. The majority of neoclassical economists only would view exploitation existing as an abstract deduction of the classic school and of Ricardo's theory of surplus-value . However, in some neoclassical economic theories exploitation is defined by the unequal marginal productivity of workers and wages, such that wages are lower. Exploitation

20328-461: The method of extraction. For example, a study has found that among surface coal mine operations, dragline equipment produced the loudest sound at a range of 88–112 dBA. Within longwall sections, stageloaders used to transport coal from the mining face and shearers used for extraction represent some of the highest noise exposures. Auxiliary fans (up to 120 dBA), continuous mining machines (up to 109 dBA), and roof bolters (up to 103 dBA) represent some of

20496-494: The mid-18th century). Working hours were long: builders worked 64 hours a week in the summer and 52 hours in winter, while servants worked 80-hour weeks. Child labour played an important role in the Industrial Revolution from its outset, often brought about by economic hardship. The children of the poor were expected to contribute to their family income. In 19th-century Great Britain, one-third of poor families were without

20664-465: The mining workforce. in 2015 US coal mines had 65,971 employees, the lowest figure since EIA began collecting data in 1978. However, a 2016 study reported that a relatively minor investment would allow most coal workers to retrain for the solar energy industry. Coal mining has been a very dangerous activity and the list of historical coal mining disasters is long. In the U.S., 104,895 coal miners were killed in mine accidents since 1900, 90 percent of

20832-661: The native people the legal ownership to some of the native land in exchange for making labour of wife and children available to colonial government's needs such as in farms and as picannins . Beyond laws, new taxes were imposed on colonies. One of these taxes was the Head Tax in the British and French colonial empires. The tax was imposed on everyone older than 8 years, in some colonies. To pay these taxes and cover living expenses, children in colonial households had to work. In southeast Asian colonies, such as Hong Kong, child labour such as

21000-516: The nineteenth century. The first documentation of child labour in Brazil occurred during the time of indigenous societies and slave labour where it was found that children were forcibly working on tasks that exceeded their emotional and physical limits. Armando Dias, for example, died in November 1913 whilst still very young, a victim of an electric shock when entering the textile industry where he worked. Boys and girls were victims of industrial accidents on

21168-469: The noisiest equipment within continuous mining sections. Exposures to noise exceeding 90 dBA can lead to adverse effects on workers' hearing. The use of administrative controls and engineering controls can be used to reduce noise exposures. Improvements in mining methods (e.g. longwall mining), hazardous gas monitoring (such as safety-lamps or more modern electronic gas monitors), gas drainage, electrical equipment , and ventilation have reduced many of

21336-420: The number of full-time home operations nearly doubled between 1882 and 1907; and in the United States, millions of families operated out of home seven days a week, year round to produce garments, shoes, artificial flowers, feathers, match boxes, toys, umbrellas and other products. Children aged 5–14 worked alongside the parents. Home-based operations and child labour in Australia, Britain, Austria and other parts of

21504-419: The occurrence of exploitative circumstances certain generalizations about social relations must be included to supply generalizations about social institutions. He says that 'if (i) certain things are true of the institutions within which interpersonal transfers occur and (ii) at least some of these transfers are nonaltruistic bilateral ones, then at least some of these transfers are exploitative. Steiner looks at

21672-438: The once homemade goods. Because children often helped produce the goods out of their homes, working in a factory to make those same goods was a simple change for many of these youths. Although there are many counts of children under the age of ten working for factories, the majority of children workers were between the ages of ten and fourteen. Another factor that influenced child labour was the demographic changes that occurred in

21840-838: The only places where child labour was prevalent in the early 20th century. Home-based manufacturing across the United States and Europe employed children as well. Governments and reformers argued that labour in factories must be regulated and the state had an obligation to provide welfare for poor. Legislation that followed had the effect of moving work out of factories into urban homes. Families and women, in particular, preferred it because it allowed them to generate income while taking care of household duties. Home-based manufacturing operations were active year-round. Families willingly deployed their children in these income generating home enterprises. In many cases, men worked from home. In France, over 58% of garment workers operated out of their homes; in Germany,

22008-535: The open pit methods, due to thickness of the seam 20–25 metres (60–90 feet). Coals occurring below 90 m (300 ft) are usually deep mined. However, there are open pit mining operations working on coal seams up to 300–460 metres (1,000–1,500 feet) below ground level, for instance Tagebau Hambach in Germany. When coal seams are near the surface, it may be economical to extract the coal using open-cut , also referred to as open-cast, open-pit, mountaintop removal or strip, mining methods. Opencast coal mining recovers

22176-421: The operation reaches a predetermined stripping ratio (tons of overburden/tons of coal), it is not profitable to continue. Depending on the equipment available, it may not be technically feasible to exceed a certain height of highwall. At this point, it is possible to produce more coal with the augering method in which spiral drills bore tunnels into a highwall laterally from the bench to extract coal without removing

22344-456: The optimization of exploitation. Meanwhile, the exploited are those who receive less than the average product he or she produces. If workers receive an amount equivalent to their average product, there is no revenue left over and therefore these workers cannot enjoy the fruits of their own labours and the difference between what is made and what that can purchase cannot be justified by redistribution according to need. According to Marxist theory, in

22512-408: The overburden. Mountaintop coal mining is a surface mining practice involving removal of mountaintops to expose coal seams, and disposing of associated mining overburden in adjacent "valley fills." Valley fills occur in steep terrain where there are limited disposal alternatives. Mountaintop removal mining combines area and contour strip mining methods. In areas with rolling or steep terrain with

22680-515: The pejorative term wage slavery . They regard the trade of labour as a commodity as a form of economic exploitation rooting partially from capitalism . As per Noam Chomsky , analysis of the psychological implications of wage slavery goes back to the Enlightenment era. In his 1791 book On the Limits of State Action , liberal thinker Wilhelm von Humboldt posited that "whatever does not spring from

22848-408: The piece, they had to work productively for hours without a break. Since furnaces had to be constantly burning, there were night shifts from 5:00 pm to 3:00 am. Many factory owners preferred boys under 16 years of age. An estimated 1.7 million children under the age of fifteen were employed in American industry by 1900. In 1910, over 2 million children in the same age group were employed in

23016-425: The potential to spontaneously ignite. Because most coal refuse harbors toxic components, it is not easily reclaimed by replanting with plants like beach grasses. The use of sophisticated sensing equipment to monitor air quality is common and has replaced the use of small animals such as canaries, often referred to as " miner's canaries ". In the United States, the increase in technology has significantly decreased

23184-497: The raised age restriction of 14, at least half of the recorded young workers had been employed illegally, which led to many not being protected by important labour laws. Although substantial time has passed since the time of regulated child labour, there are still many children working illegally in Brazil. Many children are used by drug cartels to sell and carry drugs, guns, and other illegal substances because of their perception of innocence. This type of work that youth are taking part in

23352-489: The revenue from the goods they produced, stating: "Labor cannot increase its share at the expense of capital". In particular, he argues that the theory of exploitation ignores the dimension of time in production. From this criticism, it follows that, according to Böhm-Bawerk, the whole value of a product is not produced by the worker, but that labour can only be paid at the present value of any foreseeable output. John Roemer studied and criticized Marx's theory by putting forth

23520-576: The rise of household income, availability of schools and passage of child labour laws , the incidence rates of child labour fell. As of 2023, in the world's poorest countries, around one in five children are engaged in child labour, the highest number of whom live in sub-saharan Africa , where more than one in four children are so engaged. This represents a decline in child labour over the preceding half decade. In 2017, four African nations ( Mali , Benin , Chad and Guinea-Bissau ) witnessed over 50 per cent of children aged 5–14 working. Worldwide agriculture

23688-399: The risks of rock falls, explosions, and unhealthy air quality. Gases released during the mining process can be recovered to generate electricity and improve worker safety with gas engines . Another innovation in recent years is the use of closed circuit escape respirators , respirators that contain oxygen for situations where mine ventilation is compromised. Statistical analyses performed by

23856-447: The rural areas (70%) and informal urban sector (26%). Contrary to popular belief, most child labourers are employed by their parents rather than in manufacturing or formal economy. Children who work for pay or in-kind compensation are usually found in rural settings as opposed to urban centres. Less than 3% of child labour aged 5–14 across the world work outside their household, or away from their parents. Child labour accounts for 22% of

24024-565: The seam in a pattern following the contours along a ridge or around the hillside. This method is most commonly used in areas with rolling to steep terrain. It was once common to deposit the spoil on the downslope side of the bench thus created, but this method of spoil disposal consumed much additional land and created severe landslide and erosion problems. To alleviate these problems, a variety of methods were devised to use freshly cut overburden to refill mined-out areas. These haul-back or lateral movement methods generally consist of an initial cut with

24192-448: The second half of the 19th century, child labour began to decline in industrialised societies due to regulation and economic factors because of the Growth of trade unions . The regulation of child labour began from the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution. The first act to regulate child labour in Britain was passed in 1803. As early as 1802 and 1819 Factory Acts were passed to regulate

24360-432: The spoil deposited downslope or at some other site and spoil from the second cut refilling the first. A ridge of undisturbed natural material 15 to 20 ft (5 to 6 m) wide is often intentionally left at the outer edge of the mined area. This barrier adds stability to the reclaimed slope by preventing spoil from slumping or sliding downhill. The limitations of contour strip mining are both economic and technical. When

24528-437: The standard liberal view holds that a regime of laissez-faire is a necessary condition. Natural rights thinkers Henry George and Herbert Spencer reject this view and claim that property rights belong to everyone, i.e., that all land to be valid must belong to everyone. Their argument aims to show that traditional liberalism is mistaken in holding that nonintervention in commerce is the key to non-exploitation and they argue it

24696-476: The surface or overburden, of the mining area. The overburden is then removed by draglines or by shovel and truck. Once the coal seam is exposed, it is drilled, fractured and thoroughly mined in strips. The coal is then loaded onto large trucks or conveyors for transport to either the coal preparation plant or directly to where it will be used. Most open cast mines in the United States extract bituminous coal . In Canada, Australia, and South Africa, open cast mining

24864-515: The textile industry, and further agitation led to another act in 1847 limiting both adults and children to 10-hour working days. Lord Shaftesbury was an outspoken advocate of regulating child labour. As technology improved and proliferated, there was a greater need for educated employees. This saw an increase in schooling, with the eventual introduction of compulsory schooling . Improved technology, automation and further legislation significantly reduced child labour particularly in western Europe and

25032-473: The theory of exploitation on the basis of inequitable distribution of property rights. There has been a range of agreement and disagreement from various economists, neo-classical economists favoring the model the most. Some theorists criticize Roemer for his entire rejection of the labour theory of value and the surplus labour approach to exploitation, for they were the central aspects of Marxist thought in regard to exploitation. Others criticize his commitment to

25200-524: The two basic methods of mining. The choice of mining method depends primarily on depth, density, overburden, and thickness of the coal seam; seams relatively close to the surface, at depths less than approximately 55 m (180 ft), are usually surface mined. Coal that occurs at depths of 55 to 90 m (180 to 300 ft) are usually deep mined, but in some cases surface mining techniques can be used. For example, some western U.S. coal that occur at depths in excess of 60 m (200 ft) are mined by

25368-405: The two transfers is unnecessary. The circumstances that bring out exploitation are not the same as what brings about exploitative transfers. Exploitative circumstance is due to the factors other than what motivates individuals to engage in nonaltruistic bilateral transfers (exchanges and exploitations) as they are not sufficient circumstances to bring about exploitative transfers. To further explain

25536-498: The type of work that children can perform. In all states, children are obliged to attend school until a minimum leaving age, 15 years of age in all states except Tasmania and Queensland where the leaving age is 17. Child labour has been a consistent struggle for children in Brazil ever since Portuguese colonisation in the region began in 1500. Work that many children took part in was not always visible, legal, or paid. Free or slave labour

25704-452: The use of draglines , trucks, conveyors , hydraulic jacks , and shearers. The coal mining industry has a long history of significant negative environmental impacts on local ecosystems, health impacts on local communities and workers, and contributes heavily to the global environmental crises, such as poor air quality and climate change . For these reasons, coal has been one of the first fossil fuels to be phased out of various parts of

25872-472: The wages were as little as 10–20% of an adult male's wage. Karl Marx was an outspoken opponent of child labour, saying British industries "could but live by sucking blood, and children's blood too", and that U.S. capital was financed by the "capitalized blood of children". Letitia Elizabeth Landon castigated child labour in her 1835 poem "The Factory", portions of which she pointedly included in her 18th Birthday Tribute to Princess Victoria in 1837. Throughout

26040-454: The wear and tear of capital in production in terms of its labour value. Yet examples such as this demonstrated that value and surplus value could come from somewhere other than labour. The theory has been opposed by Eugen Böhm von Bawerk , among others. In History and Critique of Interest Theories (1884), he argues that capitalists do not exploit their workers, as they actually help employees by providing them with an income well in advance of

26208-525: The workforce in Asia, 32% in Africa, 17% in Latin America, 1% in the US, Canada, Europe and other wealthy nations. The proportion of child labourers varies greatly among countries and even regions inside those countries. Africa has the highest percentage of children aged 5–17 employed as child labour, and a total of over 65 million. Asia, with its larger population, has the largest number of children employed as child labour at about 114 million. Latin America and

26376-463: The working hours of workhouse children in factories and cotton mills to 12 hours per day. These acts were largely ineffective and after radical agitation, by for example the "Short Time Committees" in 1831, a Royal Commission recommended in 1833 that children aged 11–18 should work a maximum of 12 hours per day, children aged 9–11 a maximum of eight hours, and children under the age of nine were no longer permitted to work. This act however only applied to

26544-476: The world was common. Rural areas similarly saw families deploying their children in agriculture. In 1946, Frieda S. Miller – then Director of the United States Department of Labor – told the International Labour Organization (ILO) that these home-based operations offered "low wages, long hours, child labour, unhealthy and insanitary working conditions". Child labour is still common in many parts of

26712-559: The world's child labour. Due to many children being illegally employed, the Indian government began to take extensive actions to reduce the number of children working, and to focus on the importance of facilitating the proper growth and development of children. International influences help to encourage legal actions to be taken in India, such as the Geneva Declaration of the Right of Children Act

26880-441: The world, with official statistics claiming that 6,027 deaths occurred in 2004. To compare, 28 deaths were reported in the U.S. in the same year. Coal production in China is twice that in the US, while the number of coal miners is around 50 times that of the US, making deaths in coal mines in China 4 times as common per worker (108 times as common per unit output) as in the US. Mine disasters have still occurred in recent years in

27048-1118: The world. Estimates for child labour vary. It ranges between 250 and 304 million, if children aged 5–17 involved in any economic activity are counted. If light occasional work is excluded, ILO estimates there were 153 million child labourers aged 5–14 worldwide in 2008. This is about 20 million less than ILO estimate for child labourers in 2004. Some 60 per cent of the child labour was involved in agricultural activities such as farming, dairy, fisheries and forestry. Another 25% of child labourers were in service activities such as retail, hawking goods, restaurants, load and transfer of goods, storage, picking and recycling trash, polishing shoes, domestic help, and other services. The remaining 15% laboured in assembly and manufacturing in informal economy, home-based enterprises, factories, mines, packaging salt, operating machinery, and such operations. Two out of three child workers work alongside their parents, in unpaid family work situations. Some children work as guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and restaurants. Child labour predominantly occurs in

27216-408: Was a common occurrence for many youths and was a part of their everyday lives as they grew into adulthood. Yet due to there being no clear definition of how to classify what a child or youth is, there has been little historical documentation of child labour during the colonial period. Due to this lack of documentation, it is hard to determine just how many children were used for what kinds of work before

27384-520: Was attributed 12 goods, the majority of which were produced by both underage children and indentured labourers. The report listed electronics, garments, toys, and coal, among other goods. The Maplecroft Child Labour Index 2012 survey reports that 76 countries pose extreme child labour complicity risks for companies operating worldwide. The ten highest risk countries in 2012, ranked in decreasing order, were: Myanmar, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Burundi, Pakistan and Ethiopia. Of

27552-530: Was because they lack knowledge of their basic rights, they did not cause trouble or complain, and they were often more trustworthy. The innocence that comes with childhood was utilised to make a profit by many and was encouraged by the need for family income. A variety of Indian social scientists as well as the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have done extensive research on the numeric figures of child labour found in India and determined that India contributes to one-third of Asia's child labour and one-fourth of

27720-560: Was higher and families did not face starvation as in established industrialised countries. Australia also did not have significant industry until the later part of the 20th century, when child labour laws and compulsory schooling had developed under the influence of Britain. From the 1870s, child labour was restricted by compulsory schooling. Child labour laws in Australia differ from state to state. Generally, children are allowed to work at any age, but restrictions exist for children under 15 years of age. These restrictions apply to work hours and

27888-531: Was mined, and 375.1 million tonnes was exported. In 2013/14, coal provided about 69% of Australia's electricity production. In 2013, Australia was the world's fifth-largest coal producer, after China, the United States, India, and Indonesia. However, in terms of proportion of production exported, Australia is the world's second largest coal exporter, as it exports roughly 73% of its coal production. Indonesia exports about 87% of its coal production. A court in Australia has cited climate change in ruling against

28056-499: Was passed in 1924. This act was followed by The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to which incorporated the basic human rights and needs of children for proper progression and growth in their younger years. These international acts encouraged major changes to the workforce in India which occurred in 1986 when the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act was put into place. This act prohibited hiring children younger than

28224-403: Was passed in 1998 that restricted the kinds of work youth could partake in, such as work that was considered hazardous like running construction equipment, or certain kinds of factory work. Although many steps were taken to reduce the risk and occurrence of child labour, there is still a high number of children and adolescents working under the age of fourteen in Brazil. It was not until recently in

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