I once attended an event that kept me until late at night. On my way back home around 8.30pm, I saw this young girl of about 10 or 11 years hawking sachet water. She was running after moving vehicles in order to sell her wares, mindless of a possible accident that could end her life, not to talk of the danger of being kidnapped or raped. But then, how many of such children must have been killed in a car accident or actually kidnapped, raped or trafficked?
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund( UNICEF), nearly one in 10 children are subjected to child labour worldwide, with some forced into hazardous work through trafficking.
Child labour is not strange to every Tom, Dick and Harry in this part of the world. In fact, saying it is practised in Nigeria will amount to nothing other than an understatement, but it is not peculiar to this country. It is seen and practised in other parts of the world, although at different levels and percentage.
The emergence of COVID-19 has brought about an increase in child labour. Available statistics show that roughly 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020, with 9 million additional children at risk due to the impact of COVID-19.
According to International Labour Organisation (ILO), the term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, which is harmful to their physical and mental development. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and/or interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
The worst forms of child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious health hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities often at a very young age.
According to Wikipedia, Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives them of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and which is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful.
As posited by a source, child labour can manifest in the form of slavery or similarpractices, child trafficking, forced recruitment into armed conflict, sexual exploitation, drug production and trafficking or other illegal acts, debt bondage, hazardous work that can cause injury or moral corruption.
The latest ILO global estimates on child labour indicate that Africa has the largest number of child labourers; 72.1 million African children are estimated to be in child labour and 31.5 million in hazardous work. Another source posits that most children working below permissible age limits (72 million) live in Africa, followed by Asia(62 million). Anyone under the age of 18 is considered a child, according to the United Nations.
In the olden days, African men married many wives to give birth to numerous or even uncountable children as evident in some cases. These children are needed for nothing other than to help them on their farmlands as labourers and such men were seen as wealthy and influential due to the profits they make from their children’s hard labour. Unfortunately, even after the emergence of western education, some of these parents are still engaged in the practice and nowadays,many children are still going through the effects of the archaic culture.
Apart from the aforementioned cultural origin of child labour, what about the particular religious belief, which encourages child labour?
According to a source, the Almajirai system, which encourages begging for alms, is prevalent in northern Nigeria and practised specifically by Muslim children. In that region, Muslim families send their children from their homes into major towns and cities to live with and receive qur’anic education from Islamic teachers called “Malams”.
These children are known as “almajiris”. It has been estimated by the Ministerial Committee on Madrasah Education in December 2010 that Nigeria has about 9.5 million almajiris.
The usual Islamic law is that the almajiris have to ask their host community for food only if they are hungry and when they are satisfied, they go back to the classroom. Unfortunately, these teachers “Malams” transform the children into professional beggars by forcing them to beg for money in the street and do other menial jobs for money from dawn to dusk and surrender the proceeds (money).
The outrageous part of this is the fact that many of these children follow strangers to strange and dangerous places, which may likely endanger their lives, to beg for alms and this makes the research, as posited by a source, feasible that children on the move risk being forced into work or even trafficked, subjected to violence, abuse and other human rights violations.
One of the causes of child labour is poverty. Since unemployment is on the rise, the aftermath is poverty and this explains why there are many professional beggars on the streets. Parents who even have one or two children can hardly feed them, talk less of those who have numerous children. Since these parents are unable to cater for their children, it becomes expedient for the children to fend for themselves and hence, child labour. Even right from the olden days, poor African parents who are indebted used their children as collateral!
Also free education is not compulsorily accessible to all. Many children who are interested in getting educated either hawk or go to work early in the morning before going to school so as to buy their learning materials and also pay their school fees.
Till date, government keeps advertising free education, which is not actually free. Many parents, who cannot even afford the advertised free education, end up engaging their children in child labour. Yet, the majority of Nigerian leaders enjoyed free education with other benefits attached in their own time.
Research shows that 30 million children live outside their country of birth, increasing their risk of being trafficked for sexual exploitation and other social ills. Family size also leads to child labour. Africans are fond of marrying many wives and giving birth to many children they cannot nurture and when poverty knocks on their doors, they end up sending their children either to theirrelatives or places where they can start working and fending for themselves as househelps or factory workers.
In addition, a broken home can lead to child labour. Many married couples break up with only their interests in mind; they are not concerned about the well-being of their children, who may end up being taken far away from home or to relatives who will not get them enrolled in school due to their inability to take proper care of them or who, due to their personal gains, engage them in child labour.
What about orphans who have no one to support them, who should be the responsibilities of the government but are left alone to roam about aimlessly and get kidnapped or trafficked for child labour?
Child labour can be minimised if there is an active government that has the interest of the people in mind. Some of these children work in order to support themselves. Since the government advertises free education, they should ensure that education is free indeed and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that are working towards alleviating poverty should be fully supported.
Africans should also put their archaic beliefs aside, such as marrying many wives, who will give birth to many children they will not be able to cater for, and rearing children in order to have labourers.
In addition, in filing for divorce, parents should have the interest of their children in mind because they are the future leaders. If we fail to train them properly, we may end up having an improper future.
By Adeparua Damilola
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