According to Dekker (2003) children are expected to be provided with both formal and informal social security. Most African children are dependent on the latter (Dekker, 2005). Informal social security is support that is provided through kinship, family and the community while formal social security is support that is provided by the government to help with the economy (financial and material) of the family (Dekker, 2003). There is a widespread sensitisation about the rights of the child which is accessible to children, but the parents, who are the agency for the decision-making on whether a child will trade or not are not sensitised adequately enough for it to be a deterrent and change their decisions. Children’s lives can be negatively impacted if their rights to security are not well protected. Therefore, the interest of every child should be paramount when decisions are being made in terms of the children’s trading activities. In meeting this interest, social workers argued that the social security of every child needs to be met in order to reduce the rate at which children are exploitatively used for economic purposes.
Most of the participants (children, parents and social workers) argued that many parents are not aware of the rights of their children and therefore the best interests of the children are not considered. Participants referred to parents being aware of their own rights and prioritising those rights over their children’s due to the cultural values of child obedience, respect and assistance that are expected from the children. Social workers confirmed that sensitisation of parents on the rights of their children is yet to be thoroughly addressed. However, they are hopeful that the Nigerian government will consider it soon.
The social security, which is expected to ameliorate the extent that parents take the decision to send their children to trade, is yet to be provided by the government. Social workers argued that reducing the rate at which parents send their children to trade is challenging because the government does not provide social security to parents. The study showed that if government can provide the necessary social security, for example the provision of financial support through loans to parents, especially women, and if the conditions for repayment attached to it
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are reasonable, then it will help to reduce the rate at which children are sent to trade. This is supported by the literature on the need for social security, which includes empowering women by giving out loans to mothers in support for their business (Dekker 2003).
6.5.2 The Protection Rights
The protection rights of safety from abuse, discrimination and injustice, are expected to be upheld by parents in the care and maintenance of their children. In contextualising the support for child protection, it becomes questionable if child protection is inconsistent with children’s rights (Pandey and Gautam, 2015). Children are neglected by their parents and their lives are endangered when they are out trading without being monitored, which may affect them physically, emotionally and psychologically during their childhood and even extend to their adulthood. Parents’ general perception that children have no rights as expressed in the data reveals that parents do not recognise their children’s right to protection. Findings suggest that children are deprived of their protection rights, the right to safety from abuse, discrimination and injustice when they are sent to trade by their parents. The Edo State Child Rights Law, part 2, section 28, states that:
‘No child shall be forced or subjected to child labour, or employed to work in any capacity’.
Sections 29 and 30 state:
‘Hawking (trading) or begging by children is against the law’.
Social work participants emphasised that parents’ ignorance of this law is one of the reasons why parents continue to send their children to trade. They referred to government inability to enforce, fully, the child rights law because of the socially constructed perception that government officials have about the cultural values of assistance that parents expect from their children. The fact that government takes sympathetic account of the cultural values of assistance that children are expected to give to their parents affects the ways in which child trading is addressed in the community. This suggests, in line with the literature, that the failure of the government in its duty to completely enforce children’s rights has truncated the efforts that could have been made in implementing the law (Akwara et al., 2010). Children are also required to respect their parents and family/community elders as well as expecting to be
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protected by their parents against any discriminatory cultural values or practices. However, the responsibility of being obedient to one’s parents, as instructed in the ACRWC, reinforces children’s inability to express themselves about the trading activity that they do. This has been criticised by Van Bueren (2009).
Additionally, as revealed in the data, parents appear to consider their own best interests above those of their children as they continue to think of the financial conditions of the household. This supports the view of Landgren (2005) that in the construct of child labour, the child’s best interest is most often not considered by parents when decisions are taken to send their children to trade. For the best interests of every child to be achieved, researchers have argued that children should be given the opportunity to participate in matters that concern them. This will help the children contribute meaningfully to the issues in their lives and to proffer adequate solutions. Government should also put more effort into providing a better means of bringing awareness to parents of their children’s best interests as against their (parents’) own, as the parents should also be given the opportunity to contribute positively to those interests through an inclusive sensitisation process.
6.5.3 The Participation Rights
Participation right is the right of children to contribute to have a say in matters that affect their lives, whether socially, economically, culturally and/or politically (Akwara et al., 2010). The right to participate entails children’s right to be heard and to be able to associate freely. This also includes the right for children to be able to access information and express themselves. If children can engage in these rights as they grow, they will be able to realise all their rights, which, in turn, will prepare them for active adult roles in society (Brunnberg, 2015). However, this seems scarcely visible in the lives of African children, as their parents tend to be in control of those rights for their own best interest.
Most of the children in this study indicate that their parents never sought their opinion or their feelings about the trading activity that they do. This is in violation of the UNCRC premise that children have rights in participating in decisions relating to issues that concern and impact on their lives (Habashi et al., 2012). Habashi et al. (2012) argued that while the protection premise assumes children to be free from being deprived of the necessities of life, which include access
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to medical facilities, education, food and shelter, children’s participation in decisions on issues that concern them is not always associated with the provision and the protection rights of the child. They gave an example of child labour as not being perceived as children’s participation in the economy or as contribution to the welfare of the community because the activity is perceived as exploitative. Although a few of the child participants claimed to have tried showing their feelings by refusing to trade, the children argued that this was perceived by their parents as a form of disobedience and disrespectful to them, and as a result, the children were physically punished. All the child participants agreed that they are not given the choice of whether to go out to trade for their parents or not; instead the decisions are taken on their behalf by their parents. The study, therefore, has revealed that the opinions of children are relegated and not sought when decisions are taken for them. This could be one of the reasons for the shift process as the children have the belief that they are not being listened to. It is possible that parents lack the awareness of their children’s right to have a say in the decision to trade, and that that may be the reason children’s opinions are never sought. Some parent participants’ lack of awareness is indicated in their argument that they assisted their parents when they were young, so it is expected that their children also assist them.
Additionally, all the participants agreed that children see their trading activity as an obligation that needs to be fulfilled, because it is viewed as a demonstration of being responsible, obedient and respectful children. In contrast, the study of groups of children that work in the artisanal gold mining site in Ghana suggest that while the work that some of the children do on the site may potentially be harmful to the children, the work is perceived as a means through which the children attempt to achieve access to their rights to education (Okyere, 2012). Okyere (2012) argued that it may not be in the best interest of the children to be denied the opportunity to work without consideration being given to the negative effect the denial may eventually have on them. He concludes that any intervention that seeks to end children’s work at the site should also seek to address the reasons behind the children being involved in the work in the first case. Similarly, Liebel (2015) argued that mechanisms to protect the children from exploitation and abuse which enable children to work in decent conditions should be enacted. This calls for the consideration of different types of solution to the different forms of child labour found in different communities, as one specific step taken to solve one form of child labour activity cannot necessarily be used to solve another.
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6.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter has presented and discussed child labour/trading. It supports and expands on relevant theories and literature relating to child trading as a socially constructed phenomenon that is built on original, contextual and a rich understanding of the socio-cultural influences on the decision-making processes of parents. Although the literature acknowledges the different perceptions of trading amongst children, parents and social workers, this study has explored and identified the differences in meanings ascribed to the trading activity that the children undertake. Some of these differences include trading being considered as part of hard work for children to become responsible adults and trading as part of financial support by children to their parents, especially mothers. While this trading activity corroborates the universal perception that child labour is a result of the socio-economic status of household, the study also recognises that socio-cultural elements influence the decision-making process of parents.
Similarly, the study acknowledges the need to consider the socio-cultural values of the community when child labour issues are being addressed, as children’s perceptions of their rights and parents’ understanding of the children’s rights are important. This is relevant to understanding the socially constructed view about child labour held by parents as the parents need to be enlightened about the rights of their children, since currently, parents seem to think of their own best interests rather than their children’s.
One major finding in this study through the narrative of both parents and social work participants is the transition from trading within the market environment to becoming street children, then progressing on to different types of informal occupation, which I referred to as the ‘shift’ process. This is achieved through different levels of occupational networks that can lead to criminal behaviour and illegal work, especially among the male traders. The children begin by trading within the market environment to becoming street children and move on to becoming bus conductors and finally illegal tax collectors (agberos). This is achieved through initiation into different cult groups that define the different occupations at different stages.
The chapter ended with a critical discussion of a ‘right versus welfare’ approach that could be utilised by the government as a way of initiating positive change to child trading. This could
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be considered in a developing country such as Nigeria by providing social security to both parents and their children. When government take full responsibility for the social security of children and their parents, this will provide a means through which parents can be discouraged from using cultural values as an excuse in sending their children to trade. Chapter seven will conclude this thesis.
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CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION