PREVALENCE AND CONSEQUENCES OF STREET BEGGING AMONG CHILDREN IN OGBOMOSHO METROPOLIS

This paper examined the prevalence of street begging among children in Ogbomosho Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria, together with the level of awareness of social protection policies and the consequences that child begging holds for the children involved and for the wider community. Anchored on the Social Disorganisation Theory, the study adopted a descriptive survey design and combined a structured questionnaire with in-depth interviews to obtain data from 385 respondents drawn through a multi-stage sampling technique, out of which 345 questionnaires were retrieved and validated. Eight in-depth interview sessions supplemented the quantitative data and were interpreted through content analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the survey data, while a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between the age of beggars and the prevalence of begging in the metropolis. Findings show that child begging is markedly prevalent in markets, motor parks and religious centres, and that it is particularly visible during school hours, an indication that many of the children involved ought to be in the classroom. Awareness of government and non-governmental interventions among residents was found to be comparatively high, yet a wide gap exists between such awareness and the actual benefits reaching the families of child beggars, suggesting weak policy delivery rather than an absence of policy. The consequences reported by respondents include poor mental health, exposure to abuse and exploitation, risk of trafficking, malnutrition, school dropout and long-term stigmatisation. The hypothesis test returned a statistically significant relationship between age and the prevalence of begging (F = 45.84, p = .000), with a moderate effect size. The paper concluded that child begging in Ogbomosho persists because of the interaction of weak family structures, unmet welfare needs and poor enforcement of child protection provisions, and recommended stronger law enforcement, functional rehabilitation centres and more deliberate public sensitisation to close the gap between policy and practice.