IMPACT OF STREET HAWKING ON THE SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL WELLBEING OF CHILDREN IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Street hawking is the most dominantform of child labour in Nigeria. This paper examines the impact of street hawking Oil the social and physical wellbeing of children. The paper is
anchored on Marxian theory which is a strand of conflict perspective. Street hawking may be attributed to factors like unemployment, low wages, poverty, inflation, massive retrenchment, poor quality of life, broken homes, death of parents and adverse economic environment. Some social and physical problems are associated with street hawking and they include increase in teenage pregnancy, high rate ofSTDs including HIV infection, rape,
high illiteracy, youth alcohol and drug addiction, prostitution, all forms of delinquent and criminal behaviours and exposure to road accidents. Therefore, the paper recommends that
government should ensure that existing laws on violence against children and child labour be strengthened and made more effective in order to curb street hawking in Nigeria.