INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL PRACTICES ON CHILD ABUSE IN KADUNA STATE

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Date
2011-06
Authors
KWEM, FWAH FLORENCE
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Abstract
Child abuse is an infringement on the rights of the child. The frequency of its occurrence has made it not only a national, but a global concern. The main objective of the study was the identification of cultural practices cultural practices that expose the child to various abuses in Kaduna State. The study was a survey. Three research questions and null hypotheses were drawn to guide the study. The target population included pupils and teachers of Local Government Schools in six Local Government Areas of the three Senatorial Districts of Kaduna State. The age range of the respondents was between 11 and 45 years. The Local Government Areas include Sabon-Gari, Zaria, Kaduna South, Chukun, Kauru and Jama’a. A total of 510 teachers and 781 pupils’ respondents were drawn from a population of 8,587 and 273,163, respectively. The sample size represented 20% and 1% of the total population of teachers and pupils respectively, in Kaduna State. The Research question provided the platform for information gathering for subsequent analysis.The Null hypotheses were tested using the Pearson Correlation statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the test using the Pearson correlation statistic indicated that there were significant relationship between child abuse and the existing cultural practices. Thus, all the three Null hypotheses were rejected. The study findings indicated that excessive domestic child labour, early girl child marriage, begging by children, hawking, and preference for particular sex of child. The cultural practices in Kaduna State that exposed the child to child abuse included polygamy, early girl marriages, and preference for particular sex of the child. Other causes of child abuse other than cultural practices but aid child abuses were that children voluntarily make themselves available as domestic servants for food, child hawking, high level of illiteracy, ready market for child labour, ignorance of associated dangers of hawking and begging, and the less expensiveness of child labour compared to hired adult labour. Others causes of child abuses included easy tameness of children compared to adult, high level of poverty, selective application of the Child Right Act, fear of victimization, and corruption in prosecuting offender of child abuse by the legal agencies. Drawn from these findings, it was concluded that if the situation is not checked more children will fall victim to child abuse. This will ultimately affect the leadership quality of our tomorrow’s society. To forestall this problem, it was recommended that an alternative employment, and free education be provided for these street beggars and hawkers; more awareness on the disadvantages and dangers of early girl child marriage be publicized to discourage people from going into it; and finally, the issue of poverty and illiteracy level should be addressed by the government and society at large to reduce hawking and begging.
Description
DEPARTMENT OF VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION FACULTY OF EDUCATION AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA, NIGERIA.
Keywords
INFLUENCE,, CULTURAL,, PRACTICES,, CHILD,, ABUSE,, KADUNA,, STATE.
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