Street Children: The Core of Child Abuse and Neglect in Nigeria

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Periodical article

Title:	Street Children: The Core of Child Abuse and Neglect in Nigeria
Author:	Ebigbo, P.
Year:	1996
Periodical:	Africa Insight
Volume:	26
Issue:	3
Pages:	244-249
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	street children child abuse Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Law, Human Rights and Violence Labor and Employment Urbanization and Migration
Abstract:	This article deals with working street children in Nigeria. The first section discusses a number of studies carried out among young female hawkers, showing that over half of them will either be raped or enticed in sexually compromising situations. Subsequent sections report on a nation-wide study embarked on by the African Network on Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) in recent years and led by the present author. The aim of the study was to obtain an overview of the nature and extent of child abuse and neglect in Nigeria. There were three facets to the study: a street child density assessment, a survey of adult attitudes towards child abuse and neglect, and a child attitude study (undertaken in junior secondary schools). The article shows that ignorance and poverty appear to play a major role in putting children out onto the streets either as child workers or as permanent street residents. It proposes the establishment of an institute whose major role should be the widespread dissemination of information to the Nigerian people. Ref.