The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2017 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) indicates that about 50.8 percent of Nigerian children, aged between five and 17, are involved in child labor.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NBS conducted the survey in conjunction with other partners, including the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). NAN reports that child labor entails work that is mental, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and deprives them of opportunities for schooling and development.
Mrs. Maureen Zubie-Okolo, UNICEF’s Monitoring, and Evaluation Specialist, in an interview with NAN on Tuesday in Abuja, said the figure was alarming and worrisome in spite of all legislation. Analysing the survey, Zubie-Okolo identified North-Central region as having the highest burden of child labor of 56.8 percent followed by North-West accounting for 55.1 percent.
South-South has 48.7 percent; South-East 46.6 percent, and South-West 38 percent, respectively. She also frowned at the number of children working in hazardous conditions in the country and identified North Central as accounting for the highest number with 49.6 percent.
The UNICEF official also identified North West as accounting 41.9 percent of children working in hard conditions, followed by South-South 37.9 percent; South- East 36.1 percent; North-East 34.1 percent and South-East 25.4 percent in that order.
Zubie-Okolo identified the major causes of child labor as poverty, rapid urbanization, breakdown in extended family affiliations, the rate of high school drop-out and lack of enforcement of legal instruments meant to protect children.
She identified one of the most common practices of child labor as the use of children as child domestics. Zubie-Okolo, who described the 2017 MIC survey as fifth in the series, noted that it helped to espouse the country’s progress and lapses in key areas of development, among others.
According to her, it provides an opportunity for strengthening national statistical capacity, by providing technical guidance on data gathering. She emphasized that the survey also provided statistics to complement and assess the quality of data from recent national surveys such as National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) and Nigerian General Household Panel Survey (NGHPS) conducted by the National Population Commission (NPopC).
“The high level of diverse and tedious jobs that children execute in dangerous circumstances is particularly worrying. These jobs include being street vendors, beggars, car washers or watchers and shoe shiners. Others work as apprentice mechanics, hairdressers and bus conductors, while a large number work as domestic servants and farm hands. Traditionally, children have worked with their families, but today children are forced to work for their own and their family’s survival. The money earned by child family members has become a significant part of poor families’ income. These children who work suffer from fatigue, irregular attendance at school, lack of comprehension and motivation, improper socialization, exposure to the risk of sexual abuse, high likelihood of being involved in crime. These children which are mostly young girls, should be in school but instead, they are in the market hawking food items because their families need the extra income,” she said.
She stated that,,''there is an urgent need for government to enforce laws on child labor in order to stem the tide and further reduce the burden.'' With NAN.
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