Relationship Between Street-Begging and Poverty in Ilorin Emirate, Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

There are diverse economic groups in any given society or country. Some of these groups are either privileged or less privileged with different traits in the economy of a society or country. This paper intends to examine the relationship that exists between the street-begging and poverty in Ilorin Emirate, Kwara State, Nigeria. One hundred and fifty (150) respondents were selected using Simple-Random Sampling Technique among the beggars. Questionnaire, interview and observations were used to collect data while the latter was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings show medium, positive and significant correlation between street-begging and poverty scale (rho =.31, n = 112, p <.005). More so, full-time beggars are poorer than part-time beggars as there was significant difference in the poverty levels for the two and there was no significant difference in poverty scores for male and female beggars. Most of these beggars are poor, needy and equally illiterate without significant helping hands to care for their daily necessities of basic needs. They only access to relatively meagre amount of money through street-begging activities to keep themselves and their family members survive. It is recommended to the government to incorporate this socio-economically less privileged group in the Nigerian anti-poverty programme and public to desist from encouraging this group from engaging in begging activity by extending more their helping hands to the poor or destitute before turning to any form of beggars in the society.