ABSTRACT
The study examines the causes of child labour among junior secondary school students in Ika South Local Government Area. Child labour is a pervasive social and health problem globally. It is already attract the attention of scholar, professionals, social workers, enforcement officers, legislators, policy makers and the public. Child labour on the other hand, is making children do extremely hazardous work under harmful condition, putting their health, education, personal and social development and even their life at risk. The study focused on five selected secondary school in Ika South. The sample size of one hundred (120) respondents was drawn from the five school randomly. The instrument used to collect data from the respondents is the questionnaire. The research questions were answered using. The study concluded that poverty is a major cause of child labour in Ika South Local area, heavy farm duties after school hours are not a type of child labour. Hawking on the streets during school hours is a type of child labour, early marriage forced on school age children is a type of child labour and public awareness campaign by NGOs will reduce child labour in Ika South Local Government Area. Therefore, the study made the following recommendation; government at all levels should provide social amenities and employment for employable individuals din the society so as to increase the number of people work for salary/ wages to care for their families, proper public awareness campaign should be conducted from time to time by many NGOs to educate the people the dangers of child labour on national productivity as well as the dehumanization on children, government should provide free education for secondary and primary school students so that the burden for parents is relieved for to focus more on feeding the children, parents and guardians should understand that child labour is a crime to humanity and they should know the difference between child duties and child labour, parents and guardians should not deprive their children from going to school.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Children are special link between the present and the future generation, they are a pride of every parent. Childhood is a stage, every child goes through in life where they are generally regarded as not able to make serious decisions and legally must always be under that care of a responsible adult.
According to Udoh (2017), it is worth mentioning here that there has been considerable debate over the use of terms “child labour” and “child labour” and the distinction between the tow. A consensus is gradually emerging, however that “child work” and “children’s work” is seen as a general term covering the entire spectrum of work and related tasks performed by children and child labour as a subset of children’s work that is injurious to children and that should be targeted for elimination.
According to Orazen (2003), childhood is a phase of life when a child is fee from all tension but enjoy fun loving, plays and learns new things and is also the sweetheart of the family. Not all children go through the beautiful stage of childhood, most children went through this period in full tension and burden, made to work to help in maintaining their families, this is called child labour. Child labour is a complex phenomenon most commonly in rural areas of African and Asia countries.
According to Ehiemere (2000) child labour include street hawking, farm work and domestic chores such as taking care of babies, fetching water and firewood, preparing and cooking food, individual cleaning and washing.Child labour is the same with child maltreatment because both dehumanize the child as well deprive the child from getting some essential benefits and rights as a child of the state.
According to Wikipedia (2009), most child maltreatment or abuse occurs in a child’s home, with a smaller amount occurring in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with. However, with increasing unemployment, weak institutional frame works and breakdown of the extended family system, millions of children have been forced into new types of labour that are exploitative, hazardous and prejudicial to their welfare development. Child labour is a pervasive social and health problem.
According to Udoh (2014), child labour is a pervasive social and health problem globally. It is already attract the attention of scholar, professionals, social workers, enforcement officers, legislators, policy makers and the public. Not all the children’s work equivalent to child labour. Child labour refers to negative or undesirable forms of work that should be eliminated in accordance with ILO Convention No. 138 (minimum age) and No. 182 (Worst form of child labour) and UN Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC).
Child labour is a serious problem throughout the world, especially in the developing counties. Africa and Asia together account for over 90% of total child labourers. In Africa, 40% of children between the ages of 5 and 14 works more than is equal to them. In Nigeria unofficial estimates indicates that there are 12 million child workers in the country alone (ILO, UNICEF 1997).
According to documented ethnographic studies of African people by Oloko (1996), the involvement of children in the economic activities of their parents as farming, fishing, trading, craft work and cattle rearing were perceived as responsibility training such training was a critical component of socialization through which important values were inculcated and children were integrated into their particular social and cultural milieu.
According to Adejobi (2013), children had always worked in the Nigerian society. Before the advent of modern economy, male children have always accompanied their fathers to the farm with the farm implements built to size and girls assisted their mothers in selling farm products and also with domestic chores. When education was introduced in the country, it was common practice for boys to combine farm work with schooling and school girls continued to assist their parents in the market place.
Both parent and children benefited from this responsibility training. As a matter of fact children were deemed the greatest beneficiaries since they are not adults, they require values that technical socialization as learners in various occupations, (Udoh, 2014).
According to Udon (2017), child labour on the other hand, is making children do extremely hazardous work under harmful condition, putting their health, education, personal and social development and even their life at risk. Child labour is also any work within or outside the family that involves a time and energy commitment which affect the ability of the child to participate in leisure, play and educational activities.
There are different causes of child labour. There are poverty, literacy, early marriage and high cost of education. Children who come from poor families may be forced to work to support their siblings and parents or supplement the household income when expenses are more than the parents’ earnings. It is a huge problem especially in developing countries where parents are unable to generate income due to the lack of employment opportunities or education.
Poverty is one of the most serious calamities that is ravaging the world today. It affects standard of living of an individual or family. Most often, the people find it difficult to eat talk more of savings for sky rocked school feels of contemporary schools in the society. Poverty has push many people to undertake odd jobs as well as forcing their wards to labour so as to make ends meet. When child are force to be the bread winner, the results will show more on the level of poverty because the indices for eradicating poverty cannot come from child labour.
One important cause of child labour is low literacy level among parents in the sub-Sahara region. Education is a key because it enable one to take reasonable and acceptable decisions in the society. Children from low literacy level are vulnerable to child labour because their parent play down the importance of education and preferring the child to participate in some labours that ordinarily would not be given for a child.
Early marriage is one issue that has received global attention. This is because of its consequences on a child. Parents who are not martially prepare tend to use their children to support the up keep of the family by sending them to the street to hawk or to the farm to work or sending them to a guidance who in return pays the parents money for the services the child had rendered for the guidance.
High cost of education is yet another issue that has cause child labour. Children are force to drop out from school when their schools fees are not paid by their parents or guardian. When children are forced out of school, they are also forced to do odd job to make ends meet. Every moment, school fees are increase and average income earner find it difficult to provide for their children.
Children can be found employed in mines or hawking in the streets or work in the farm to earn money that is used to provide basic necessities such as food and clothing for the family. Children may also be employed in factories to generate income for the family instead of attending school. Such a practice is a common phenomenon in poverty-stricken regions with large factories set up by international companies.
A society with many educated people understands the importance of going to school and pursuing dreams. Children have the ability and time to become whatever they aspire to be. Illiteracy, on the other hand, makes it difficult for many people to understand the importance of education. Illiterate people view education as a preserve of the privileged in the society. They will therefore not provide support to children so that they can go to school and build solid foundations for future success. The same view of life is seen among illiterate parents who prioritize children contributing to the upkeep of the family over going to school.
Quality education is expensive. To many parents who live in abject poverty, priority is given to providing food for the family because education is too expensive to afford especially when there are many children to pay school fees for. Instead of letting children stay at home because there is lack of money to send them to school, parents opt to have them working as unskilled labourers to help support the family. Some parents can also only afford basic education which means that children will be forced to look for work since they cannot pursue their education further.
Statement of the Problem
Times without number, there have been public outcry including media campaign against the prevalent exposure of children to this avoidable social misfortune called child labour. When one goes out, one sees children engaged in petty-trading and street begging, while some hawk for their parent and guardians when they should be laying a solid foundation for the future. One reads about rape of children in the newspaper, ( Adejobi et al, 2013).
Child labour is a complex phenomenon mostly common in urban and rural areas in Nigeria. According to Ehiemere (2000) child labour constituted street hawking, farm work and domestic chores such as house help, fetching water and firewood, preparing and cooking food among others. It has been alleged that there are cases of child labour on the working child which are caused by different factors such as poverty, illiteracy, early marriage.
Therefore, this study seek to investigate the factors that causes of child labour on junior secondary school students in Ika South Local Government of Delta with the view to examine the purpose ways to create awareness against the menace as well as control the it to the minimum level.
Purpose of the Study
- To examine the causes of child labour among junior secondary school students in Ika South.
- To discover the types of child labour among junior secondary school students in Ika South.
- To find out the remedies to child labour among junior secondary school students in Ika South.
Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study.
- What are the causes of child labour among junior secondary school students in Ika south?
- What are the types of child labour among Junior secondary school students in Ika South?
- What are the remedies to child labour among junior secondary school students in Ika South?
Significance of the Study
The results of this study will be beneficial to the following:
- Parents/ Guardians
- School Administartion
- The Governement
The first results of this study will be beneficial to parents/Guardians and even the society because they will be able to know the causes of child labour in the home and society so to make proper plans to ameliorate them.
The school Administrators will benefit from this study because when there is high rate of awareness on the causes and remedies of child labour, it means that there will be a good number of students who are aware.
For the government, the recommendations of the study will provide suitable information in the campaign to eradicate child labour which has eaten deep into our society.
Also, since the study takes its case study in Ika South, the people in the local government will be able to discover the causes and the available remedies to contain the issue of child labor. Since, the study is presently carried out, the time frame for those that will benefit focus on present day children.
Scope and Delimitation of the Study
This study intends to examine the causesof child labour among junior secondary school students in Ika South.
