Determinants and Prevalent Forms of Child Labour Practices in Awka South Local Government Area, Anambra State, South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examined determinants and prevalent forms of child labour practices in Awka South Local Government Area, Anambra State, South-East, Nigeria. The study anchored on expectancy theory as its theoretical orientation. The target population consisted of only adults who were 18 years and above. The mixed methods research design was adopted in this study. A sample size of 200 was statistically generated using Taro Yamane formular. Multistage sampling procedure which involved simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were employed in selecting the study participants. The major instruments of data collection used were questionnaire schedule which is a quantitative method and in-depth interview guide which is a qualitative method. Self-administration was used in administering questionnaire to respondents. In conducting interviews, English language was used for the literate respondents while vernacular was used for the illiterate respondents. Quantitative data collected from the field study were processed with the use of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The qualitative data were analyzed using manual content analysis. Findings of the study indicated that determinants of child labour practices include poverty, educational level of parents, family size, cultural belief and living in slum area. Also, results of the study showed that prevalent forms of child labour practices in Awka South Local Government Area include hawking, street begging, domestic work, farming and working in factories.  Therefore, it was recommended that government should introduce effective and efficient welfare service scheme that will address the issue of poverty especially among the less privileged and poor members of the society. Also, education should be made free and compulsory from primary to secondary level to encourage children from poor families to acquire education.