Child Labour is the state of involving children in work activities that deprive them of their childhood, education, health and dignity. Children due to their fragile and developing nature should not be forced into activities that can be mentally, physically, morally, socially harmful and dangerous to their well-being.

Child Labour is sometimes misinterpreted by people as children who help their parents do some chores or children who take up some little jobs to earn some cash after school or during holidays. Jobs that are not overly demanding, and are not physically and mentally detrimental to their state of health. This instead is a process of self-development; it helps build them into productive members of the society.

In extreme cases, child labour involves intolerable abuse, child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labour, or other illicit activities. Child labour is prevalent in developing countries due to high poverty level and a lack of social infrastructure.

Children have to engage in highly demanding activities that are detrimental to their health to make ends meet. Some have to do this help themselves through school.

Just like in many other countries, Nigeria has put together legislations to discourage child labour and various organisations have sprung up to pursue the legislation to the letter. Nigeria being the most populous country in Africa, and being a developing country has a very high number of children involved in child labour.

The growing gap between the rich and the poor in Nigeria has forced millions of children out of school into work. Poverty is a major driver of child labour in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, it is common to see children who are street hawkers, beggars, conductors, mechanics and domestic servants. A lot of educated Nigerians are against the use of children for jobs that are detrimental to their health, education and general well-being.

They claim to be in total support of the fight against child labour. A very high percentage of the same group of Nigerians have house maids below the age of 15. The use of children as domestic workers have become synonymous with most elite families in Nigeria.

The little kids are made work to for at least 8-10 hours every day sometimes even more. Their chores include but not limited to;

• Washing of clothes
• Washing of plates
• Cleaning rooms and furniture
• Cooking
• Taking care of their employer’s children
• Running errands.

The domestic workers are often maltreated by their employers, they are underfed, overworked, and they are not well clothed. A lot of times they are beaten mercilessly for ignorable reasons. Nigerians prefer the little children as domestic workers because they consider them to be more submissive and easier to control than the older ones.

To add to their harsh living and working conditions, they also have to face the issue of restricted movements, little or no social interaction, and sometimes sexual abuse.

The Benin Republic, a neighbouring country is one of the largest supplier of young domestic workers to Nigeria. They are brought in by someone who stands as their agent and distributed to those who need their services in Nigeria for a certain fee.

Most times the money goes to the family members of the children. This sometimes reaffirms the fact that there is a thin line that separates Child Labour and Slavery.

The Nigerian government obviously needs to dedicate more financial and human resources to the fight against Child Labour. Putting Legislations in place is not enough; enforcement of those legislations is highly paramount. Once people start getting punished for being a party to such heinous act, others will learn and desist from being a party to it.

In conclusion, it is very important to educate Nigerians better on the issues of Child Labour; this is because it can be very confusing when someone who says he/she is full support of the fight against Child Labour has a 6-year-old housemaid at home. If you are one of them, you obviously need to re-evaluate your position on the topic.

What’s your take on this?

Oyeniyi Afolabi. Worked as an Assistant Contents Manager at a Media Organisation in Lagos. After a few years away from the industry, I am back trying to reconnect with my love for writing. This time took an interest in writing articles about several issues that deals with children/babies.
You can check my blog out www.cheerfulbabies.com. Attached to this e-mail is a sample of my write-up.