Gender imperatives of children street hawking and its effect on children’s education in Olorunda Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The welfare of children is an index of social and economic development of the society, and child labour is antithetical to the psycho-social development of children. Child street hawking is a form of child labour that has been in existence for quite some time and it has continued to affect the educational development of children. A total of 200 children in Olorunda Local Government area of Osun State were involved in the study and data was obtained through structured questionnaire. The study revealed that even though both male and female children are involved in street hawking, the female form the vast majority as 89% of street hawkers in the study area involved in the study were females. It was also revealed that street hawking hampers the education of children and their development for the future. Factors such as poverty, support for the family, raising money for children education were reasons identified as the causes of children street hawking. The study recommended the need for government to design appropriate poverty alleviation programmes, free education, public enlightenment on the dangers of street hawking on children education especially for the more vulnerable female children and the enactment and enforcement of laws to ban children street trading, as well as embark on the rehabilitation of children who have dropped out of school through street hawking.

Keywords: Children,Education, Street Hawking, Poverty, Osun State-Nigeria