Dickens and Gatsby on poor and working children

Like my friend Esther?s father Jamie, I am a Charles Dickens fan because of the novelist?s exquisite use of the English language. I recently realized that I should also read Dickens to understand today?s Turkey.

It was normal for children to work in early 19th century England. Dickens himself had to labor in a shoe-blacking factory when his father was put into a debtors? prison. I was very surprised to find out, thanks to a research note published on Feb. 3 by Istanbul think tank Betam, that more than 50,000 Turkish children are suffering Dickens? fate in early 21st century.

By looking at data from the 2012 Child Employment Survey, Betam researchers find that 292,000 children between the ages of six to 14 are involved in some kind of economic activity. While some work only a few hours per week, 47,000 put in more than 40 hours. In addition, 10,000 spend at least that much time working at home.

31,000 of these child laborers work more than the weekly legal ceiling of 45 hours. Most of them are underpaid. 17,000 make less than 500 Turkish Liras a month, less than minimum wage for those younger than 16 in 2012. But even if they were paid better, I would have still wondered how they managed to find time for their studies from working at least eight hours a day.

It turns out many don?t. Nearly one-fifth of the 292,000 working children do not attend school even though they are at the compulsory education age. This is particularly worrying, as another Betam research note, which was published on Jan. 29, finds a positive relationship between the level of education and poverty.

Even those who manage to go to school are likely to miss classes a lot, which could affect educational outcomes: Indeed, another Betam research note, which...