INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL PRACTICES ON CHILD ABUSE IN KADUNA STATE
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.