CHILD ABUSE-NIGERIA
Oct 20th, 2008 by admin
The abuse of Children is fast becoming an issue in the country, which needs to be urgently addressed. Children who are either sexually or physically abused suffer silently for crimes that are committed against them. Crimes often perpetuated by family members or people known to them.
To properly define what child abuse is like, in the African context, one needs to look at the parameters within which it exists, bearing in mind that the average African family is usually ignorant of this societal problem which is interpreted differently when brought to bare. First, it is considered a taboo. Secondly, cases are not reported because of the stigma attached. An abused child is stigmatised in the society. With a situation like this, it is therefore important to know that children culturally and traditionally have no rights. In the societal view, children are expected to be appreciative if their basic needs are met. For instance, spanking a child is culturally accepted in Africa and according to Titi Tade, a social worker and counsellor in Lagos, Nigeria. There is a thin line between spanking that is appropriate and not so it a parent’s responsibility to understand what is most appropriate, culture aside.
Nevertheless, underage children who work as domestic servants, street hawkers, vendors, beggers, shoe shiners, car washers and bus conductors are very vulnerable to buse because this group of children in the labour market have a huge chance of being abused daily by people they come across while trying to make a living. For female hawkers, it encourages men to take advantage of them. On the other hand, these children cannot be blamed because they help put food on the taut food on the table at home and pay their school fees.
So they are left with no option or easy way out. Ms. Tade says, Poverty is the root cause, because parents do not necessarily want to send their children out to fend for themselves and, parents who encourage their children to hawk do so because they have no alternative source of raising funds.