Maria Montessori spoke out against child labour.

The International Labour Organisation draws our attention to the fact that social protection is both a human right and a potent policy tool to prevent families from resorting to child labour in times of crisis. However, as of 2020 and before the COVID-19 crisis took hold, only 46.9 per cent of the global population were effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit. Coverage for children is even lower. Nearly three quarters of children, 1.5 billion, lacked social protection.

Maria Montessori spoke out against child labour during the Second International Women’s Congress of 1899 (26 June – 4 July) hosted in London. As one of Italy’s official delegates, she also brought greetings to the congress on behalf of Italian women, and in her lecture on 27 June, Maria Montessori appealed to the social conscience of the audience by addressing a persistent problem: Children working in the mines and other dangerous work. She spoke of the conditions in which very young children had to work in the mines, stressing that:

the long hours, the cramped space, the continuous going up and down the stairs, the heavy loads they had to carry, the lack of […] light and fresh air and the miserable wages banished all joy and health from these young lives.