Spatial Analysis Of Child Labour In The Federal Capital City Abuja

ABSTRACT

In recent yea •s1bour has attracted people's attention in social issues,

developr.iental pes and of course research works. Like other cities of the

Developing v..10 r labour activities are increasingly becoming social and

developmental sin the Federal Capital City. The study was aimed at

analyzing the c!-r situation in selected locations of the city vvith specific

objectives o-f c and analyzing the demographic and socio-economic

characteristics oJourers, their spatial origins, the activities child labourers

are engaged in t they get from them, the consequences of child labour

activities on the :hildren, perceptions of the child labour on their activities

and factors encchild labour in the Federal Capital City. Using snow ball

sampling technl,(20%) of the total enumerated average population was

taken af·ter thr-End counts from the seven study centres in the city on

proportion ate bdata for this study were generated through questionnaire

administ:--ai:ion; i.Jp discussions and interviews. Data vvere analyzed using

descripth.te stat:il as pie chart, percentages, and tables among others.

Spearrn an F;. an k 1relation Coefficient and Chi-square we re em p I oyed to test

the three re sea r•eses. All the null hypotheses were rejected, indicating that

there was gender amongst child labourers, there was relations hip between

child labourer a rmily sizes, and, there is a significant relationship between

child labourers 'parents' educational status. The resu Its of the research

showed th 2 t 5 2 .~ males while 47.11% were females; 71. 5 6 % of the child

labourers corn bi Jling with labour force activities, whi I e 2 7 .11 % are early

school le ave rs,: c lrers are from across the country, with I a rge r concentration

from North Centi West and South East. Child labourers provide a lot of

services such as:>f fruits and hawking of water which generate income

com para bi e to t: Mhs and adults; they are in labour force activities because

of their pa re nta ! 1al background which are mostly of primary and secondary

school qua I ifi cai:lts attendance consequence on poverty and hence love for

money. They fac challenges such as restlessness, risk from motor vehicles

and sexual exp I 01ong others at places of work. However, majority of them

are not Ni II in g tot they are doing and are not happy that gave rnment has

banned chi Id I a bdes. As a result therefore, they want government to make

education free '.Bry as well as provide good jobs for their parents. The

research the ref amends that government should enforce a II laws and

policies on chi Id rll as ensuring that gainful employment opportunities are

madeavailable tC1ry.