CAUSES AND STRATEGIES FOR CURBING CHILD BEGGING IN OGBOMOSHO METROPOLIS, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

This paper investigated the causes of curbing begging among children in Ogbomosho Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria, and the strategies available for curbing the practice. Anchored on Strain Theory, the paper adopted a descriptive survey design and combined a structured questionnaire with in-depth interviews to gather data from a sample of 385 respondents drawn through a multi-stage sampling technique, out of which 345 questionnaires were retrieved and validated, alongside eight in-depth interview sessions analysed through content analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the quantitative data, while a t-test was used to test the hypothesis that socio-economic background is not a significant factor in children's reasons for begging. The findings identified poverty, deliberate parental encouragement, peer pressure, cultural and religious beliefs, orphanhood, and limited access to free education as the principal causes of child begging in the metropolis, with poverty and peer pressure recording the highest mean scores. In-depth interviews further linked family breakdown, particularly the stigmatisation of divorced parents, to children's vulnerability to begging. On strategies, respondents expressed strong support for stricter law enforcement, free and compulsory education, financial support for struggling parents, penalties for adults who exploit children for begging, and sustained public awareness campaigns. The hypothesis test returned a statistically significant relationship between socio-economic background and children's reasons for begging (t = 6.770, p = .000). The paper concluded that child begging in Ogbomosho is sustained by an interaction of economic deprivation and social strain that pushes families toward begging as a survival strategy, and recommended a combination of stricter enforcement, economic empowerment of parents, and expanded educational access as the most promising means of curbing the practice.