Hazards Encountered by Juvenile Hawkers in Markets and Motor Parks in Kano City, Nigeria

Abstract

Background A growing number of juvenile hawkers are found on the streets and markets in developing countries including Nigeria. They face significant physical, emotional and psychological hazards which have not been fully explored. We studied these hazards, including sexual assault, in Kano City, Northern Nigeria. Method A cross-section of 282 juvenile hawkers was interviewed in markets and Motor Parks in Kano city in northern Nigeria. Results Of the 282 children, majority were female (61.7%), of Hausa ethnicity (57.1%) and Muslim (97.2%). There was also a high illiteracy rate 76/282 (27.0%) and a high school dropout rate 22/282 (7.8%). Their ages ranged from 10 to 17 years with a mean of 13.8+-2.1 years. Most (73.8%) of their parents were still married, 14.9% were divorced while 11.3% had lost both parents. Hazards faced by these children included involvement in road traffic accidents (29.1%), physical assault (27.3%), fighting (37.2%) and theft (14.5%). Others included gang beating (9.6%) and kidnap (0.7%). 44 of them had been sexually assaulted, a prevalence of 15.6% (95%CI=11.6% to 20.4%). This was 23.6% among females and 2.8% among males. This difference was statistically significant [χ2=21.9 P Key words: Child labour, Hazards, Sexual assault, Nigeria