Hawking: Child abuse or means of survival?

By Oluwapelumi Adeniyi & Saheed Ibrahim
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I hawk for my aged grandmother,  since I have no parents anymore, she is the one taking care of me and the only option left is to hawk for her in other to earn a living for both of us.” 14 years old hawker, Adelakun Omoniyi.

The phrase “child abuse” translates to misuse of any child or depriving a child his/her fundamental and other rights that he or she should enjoy. One of the phenomenon that are peculiar to our society is street hawking by teenagers and children.

High level of poverty in the country has been identified as the major reason parents make their children to hawk. A situation whereby a family lives from hand to mouth, such tends to exploit every means to put food on their table. Thus, hawking becomes one of the options thrown on the table for their children to augment the little earnings  parents are able to garner. In a country with high level of poverty, many people will trade their birthrights for morsels of food in a bid to survive and this usually affect the rights of the children.

With poverty in the country, it has now become really difficult to determine if hawking by teenagers should be allowed or declared an abuse. Should there be an age limit or time limit to which young people can hawk?

First, we decided to speak to some of these children hawkers. During our interactions, we discovered that some of them hawk to help their families.  Surprisingly, some of these teenage hawkers expressed happiness doing what they do. A 12-year-old hawker, Ademola Ronke said, “My daddy is an Okada rider and my mother is a tailor. I hawk because it is the fastest means of earning money for the family and I am always happy whenever I make money for my parents”.

Rokiba Lawal, who disclosed that she started hawking at  age 12, opined that hawking is not a bad thing because many factors conditioned a child to hawk.

“Some children hawk because of their backgrounds. Hawking is not child abuse. That a child hawks does not mean he would be wayward, but there are certain categories of hawkers that we can tag child abuse. For instance, when the parents continue to procreate in abject poverty without any means to cater for the children; they will make their under-aged children to hawk. I have seen a five year- old girl hawk in the market. That is child abuse.

“So your family and background determine your opinion about hawking and child abuse. When I was hawking, my mother too was hawking. I did’t see it as child abuse then, but now that I have grown up, I may consider it as child abuse,” she concluded.

Some members of the public shared their opinions with The Hope. While some viewed the act of subjecting children to hawking as child abuse, others opined that it is one of the ways to survive the harsh economic reality in the country.

Miss Taiwo Tolulope, described hawking by teenagers and children as an abuse. In her words: “Hawking is a form of child abuse and it is even a major form of abuse that is commonly found in almost all the states in Nigeria. It is just an infringement on the rights of the little children. You see a lot of kids hawking early in the morning at a time they are supposed to be in the school.

“This is like depriving them of their rights to education. So, when you see a child hawking when he/she is supposed to be in school, that is obviously child abuse.   The Nigerian government should try and stand against this,” she stated.

Her position was corroborated by an  8-year-old hawker, Adams Olaleye, who said his step-mum made him hawk and he must not return home until all the goods were sold.

“I hawk for my step mother. Whenever I come back from school, my step mother always send me and my step brothers on errands to hawk vegetables and pepper, and we are always told to find means to sell everything before we get back home. At times, I do get home by 10 pm  due to the instructions given to us.”

However, Miss Adedara Oluwanifesi, shared a two-sided opinions on the subject. According to her, “Hawking is not child abuse. This case is a two sided coin. Hawking might serve as a child abuse and it might not.  For example, some homes depend on their children’s hawking as a means of survival, if they don’t hawk, they won’t eat. Looking at the economy of Nigeria, people suffer a lot and through their children’s hawking, they get their daily bread, some don’t even have three square meals a day”.

Miss Oluwanifesi however noted that some people used hawking as a means to inflict suffering on their children. She also noted that hawking exposed children to dangers such as accident, rape, victimization and other forms of immoral behaviours.

She however concluded that “If a child goes to school and after school hours, the child starts hawking, it is not child abuse, but if the child is not taken care of, it is child abuse”.

In his own reaction, Mr Sunday Ayegbege asserted that hawking is no doubt child abuse. He said under no  circumstance should a parent make her child hawk in the market, saying “it is the responsibility of parents to see to the needs of their children. Many parents hide under the shade of poverty in the country and become irresponsible”.

Miss Aliu Silifa shared similar view with Miss Oluwanifesi. She opined that the circumstances that surround hawking will determine if it is a way of abusing children or not.  She said when a child, who is supposed to be in school hawks, that can be tagged an abuse, but when a family has no other option than hawking, it is more of survival than hawking.

Her words: “It is not child abuse when people are left with no option than to hawk and earn a living, but parents that allow their wards to hawk during school hours are children to danger, because kids like that are endangered to rape, accidents and other social vices.