Children of the Street

Who is a Child?
According to the criteria used by most psychological testing materials, childhood is a period between the ages of 0 – 16 years. It is characterized by rapid development in intellectual, emotional, social and behavioral disposition of man.

Ebigbo identified two categories of street children in Nigeria name “children in the street” and “children of the street”. Children in the street are children sent to the street to trade or hawk and go back home at night.  They don’t live in the street but rather spend most of their time on the street.  On the other hand, “children of the street” are children who actually live and survive, abandoned to their fate, in the streets.

For this write up, the street is to all intents and purpose home.  Such children have to device survival strategies, which include stealing, used of violence, lying, cheating among other undesirable behaviors.

Street hawking has been an aspect of child labour practice in Nigeria for more than a century.  Historically and traditionally Nigerians place very high value on children, but in spite of this, some parents treat children as commodity.  Some parents give their children to serve strangers for monetary gain.  The child-rearing pattern of Nigerian until very recently was based on the philosophy of children being seen and not heard.  The battering of a child or starving of a child, or child labour for long period of time, (street children) were considered as normal way of rearing children in order to make children useful to themselves.

What is the etiology of this?

There are numerous causes of street children.  When a child is not well taken care of, no food, shelter, medical care and education are not given to this children, they run away from home to continue their living elsewhere.  Thus, below are some of the factors that cause street children (children in the street & children of the street).  

CHILD ABANDONMENT: There are lots of parents who abandon their children as a result of one problem or the other. For example, if after the birth of a child, you find out that the child is handicapped or that people should not know you have had the child, or you feel you cannot feed the child and you decide to abandon the children near a hospital, pathway, riverside or refuse dump. This type of child grows up to become a street-child. Child abandonment according to ANPPCAN research is the most widespread form of child abuse and neglect in Nigeria.

CHILDREN USED AS BEGGERS : There are some parents whose children were as a result of child abuse lead them to being street children. For example when children are suppose to be at school but rather they are used by adult beggar to stay under the heat of the sun at street corners or road junctions to beg for money, and will not want to go back home or to school. Rather he will choose to stay on the street and beg for alms thus, becoming a street child

CHILDREN BATTERING: This happens in most cases with children who live with their relatives or may be they have lost their parent (orphan) and the person taking care of them is maltreating them. As a result of this, they become a street child.

POVERTY: When parents could no longer provide for their children at times, such children tends to rebel against their parent and they leave home to street to find their feet and become a street child. Some of them when they get to street become a drug addict, female among them go into prostitution and contact the deadly diseases like STDs, AIDs etc.

FRUSTRATION AND BOREDOM: This may be as a result of frustration at home and from school (repeated failure in school or incessant scolding and condemnation at home) lead to frustration and alienation between children and adults. There are also children whose temperament and habits reflect restlessness, impatience and stubbornness. Such children are difficult to control and sometimes defiantly leave home and school for the streets. In an early study, Ebigbo (1985) reported that some of the children interviewed on the streets said they enjoyed following their fellow children around the streets to meet people.

DESTABILIZING FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES: The majority of children who find school boring and or who have experienced failures in school as well as those children who for one reason or the other such as parent loss, divorce or separations, find their home life unattractive. These children will easily enjoy street life whether hawking or not. Divorce or separation by parents is an extremely traumatic event in the lives of children. And since it is a process that usually brews for years, at the stage that the events actually occur, a child could be so emotionally frustrated that, he would decide to leave home. Other children get lured away by evil companies or mischievous adults. An only child who loses both parents could abandon home and take to the street.

Clearly, “the child of the street” is a phenomenon of the growing complexity of modern urban living characterized by breakdown of stabilizing social institutions like the family, accentuated by the prevailing cruel economic hardship.

Let us help reduce this issue by giving children the psychological support they need, and supporting NGOs and people that help take your children off the street. I salute Mandy Rachel initiative and Love initiative... You inspired this post.

For a better tomorrow!