Skip to main content

CHILD LABOUR

   In some countries, many children under the age of fourteen work outside their homes. They work as househelps, hawkers, bus conductors as well as servers in bars and eating places, some wash cars, sell newspapers or carry heavy loads in the market. These kinds of work are called child labour. Child labour endangers children's health and safety. Very often, the work prevents them from going to school or slows down their education. It does not allow children to play games watch television, play or do other things that children love doing.
     It is true that in most Nigeria communities, young children have always been used for selling goods around the villages or town. The children sell goods by calling their wares aloud or by going from door to door. However, this takes place in villages where the children are well known and are quite safe. In such cases, the children hawk things very early before going to school or after they come back from school. In big towns, children hawk from morning till evening. They hawk in the market, motor parks, mechanic villages, busy roads and building sites.
     Young children who hawk goods are in great danger. They can be knocked down by cars, wounded by motor scraps, beaten and hurt by adults. Young female hawkers can be molested by adult men. In addition, young hawkers learn bad behavior like lying, cheating, stealing and insult. Many of the young hawkers miss school regularly. Even when they go they are too tired to listen in class or do their homework at the end of the day.
In spite of all the disadvantages discussed above, it is important to remember that some situations force children to work. This may be because their families do not have enough money, so the children have to work to bring in some additional money. Some children have to find money to pay for their fees, school uniform, books and other things. Some guardians ask children to hawk in order to pay for their feeding. It is quite clear that many adults are not aware that there are laws which forbid child labour in Nigeria. Some who know about the laws say that in our culture, children are expected to work and earn some money to help their families. So, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between normal children's work and child abuse. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Natural soil

 Natural soils are influenced by rainfall and temperature,heavy rain causes the soil to become leached. High temperatures increase the rate of decomposition of organic matter in the soil, thereby lowering its humus content. Thus, climatic conditions tend to produce poor soils in the tropics and rich soils in the temperate regions. Besides climate and vegetation, the parent rock material also contributes to the quality of the soil. For example volcanic rocks tend to produce fertile soils.    Laterite, a red soil which is a product of leaching, is commonly found in the tropics. It is composed mainly of iron and aluminium compounds,and poor in humus and essential plant nutrients, such as phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. The black and brown soil of the temperate grasslands are the world's richest soils, with a high mineral and humus content. The light coloured desert soils tend to be very rich in minerals but have a low humus content.    Mainly the soils ar...
Post a Comment
Read more

READING AND UNDERSTANDING

All reading is geared to understanding. There would be no point in reading if we did not understand what we are reading. However there are many different obstacles in the way of easy understanding of a passage. It is your task as a reader to actively seek to break down the barriers to understanding.    One block to understanding is caused by references in the passage to things that are outside it. Pronoun are the first examples of words that refer to people and objects. Sometimes, it is easy to follow the reference at other times, it is more difficult. Look at the opening sentence of the passage you've just read that begins this way  "She was waiting for us:small, dowdy, dirty..."  Who was waiting? Who was the person waiting for? (Perhaps you would also like to know why she was waiting.)Answers to these questions will surely help you to understand and thus follow the reference. The first thing to do is to ask questions like the ones we have just asked and to read t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Experiencing grief

Grief is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. The more significant the loss, the more intense your grief will be. Grieving is a highly individual experience; there’s no right or wrong way to grieve. How you grieve depends on many factors, including your personality and coping style, your life experience, your faith, and how significant the loss was to you. Inevitably, the grieving process takes time. Healing happens gradually; it can’t be forced or hurried—and there is no “normal” timetable for grieving . Some people start to feel better in weeks or months. For others, the grieving process is measured in years. Whatever your grief experience, it’s important to be patient with yourself and allow the process to naturally unfold. Emotional symptoms of grief Shock and disbelief. Right after a loss, it can be hard to accept what happened. You may feel numb, have trouble believing that the loss really happen...
Post a Comment
Read more