Abstract
The study explored market women’s perception of what constitutes child abuse and neglect in their daily interactions with their wards at Batati market. This main market in Bida was purposively selected and divided into five zones and using systematic sampling techniques, 40 shops owned by women were selected per zone. Two hundred women who consented participated in the study. One woman (owner or assistant) was interviewed per shop. A self-developed interview scheduled test for validity and reliability with correlation co-efficient result of 0.89 was used to collect data. Findings revealed that 65% and 60% had experienced street hawking and load carrying respectively during childhood. About 44.5% had stayed long hours in the market with their parents or relations. Majority (70%) perceived load carrying services by children, and using children as beggar assistants as child abuse while scolding, beating and starving children were perceived as training measures rather than abuse. While the study revealed some degree of awareness about some behaviours that constitute child abuse and neglect certain other behaviours were not regarded as such. Implications for educational programmes among women in urban centres were highlighted.
Highlights
The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child [1] and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) charter on the rights and welfare of the child remain the point of reference for defining what is child rights and monitoring
The problem of child abuse and neglect will continue to attract the attention of researchers since the parental role and child rights will continue to change from culture to culture as globalisation and industrialization increase
Nigeria should coordinate its child rights monitoring activities for effective and efficient mobilisation and actions to reach many more people, especially market women to educate them on the hazards of child labour
Summary
The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child [1] and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) charter on the rights and welfare of the child remain the point of reference for defining what is child rights and monitoring. Various research endeavours continue to reveal socioeconomic, cultural, religious, ethnic as well as legal factors perpetuating different types of child abuse and neglect behaviours in different parts of the world as well as in Nigeria [2,3,4,5]. The impact of abuse and neglect on the child has been extensively researched [6, 7]. Researchers have suggested that about a third of abuse survivors grow up to abuse their own children [8,9,10]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
