Child Labour in Fostering Practices: A Study of Surulere Local Government Area Lagos State, Nigeria

Child Labour and Protection: An Exploration of Vulnerable Children in Lagos State, Nigeria

“…Merton (1938) argued that deviance results not from pathological personalities rather from the culture and structure of society itself. He emphasized the fact that individuals in society tend to go against the accepted norms because their actions have been necessitated by the values in the system (Okunola and Ikuomola, 2010). Merton (1938) explains this from value consensus perspective that the same social values available to all.…”

“…Merton (1938) explains this from value consensus perspective that the same social values available to all. However, social structure limits the opportunities for those in the lower strata not to have the same opportunity of reaching the shared values (Okunola and Ikuomola, 2010). Many families result to unconventional means of achieving their goals such as child labor (Okunola and Ikuomola, 2010).…”

“…Child labor is the world most common form of child abuse; it remains a wide spread phenomenon throughout the world; engaged by both biological as well as foster parents and children on the street (Abdulla, 1986). It is a phenomenon that has elicited diverse comment from different scholars and interest groups (Okunola and Ikuomola, 2010).…”

“…Nigeria with about two hundred million population (); it is worrisome that child labor accounts for 20-30% of the population. In urban areas, such as Lagos 1.1 million working children are less than 15 years of age (Okunola and Ikuomola, 2010). Child labor is rampant in Lagos State; this is evident in the increased number of street children, child hawkers, child sex workers and child beggars.…”

Transnational migration, health and well-being: Nigerian parents in Ireland and the Netherlands

“…The preference is for a close kinship relationship to exist between a foster carer and child such as a biological grandparent or maternal or paternal aunt (Renne, 1993). Child fosterage is not an indicator of parental inferiority as the child is expected to return to the biological family for days or years; rather fosterage is within normative kinship obligations and is often used to support social mobility of the child and his or her family (Okunola & Ikumola, 2010). There are some suggestions within the literature that traditional practices of fosterage such that the maxim 'every mother regards the child of her sister as her own child' are changing; and that in present day Nigeria, biological children may be differentiated from fostered children by the school they attend or the domestic activities they do in their fostered parents' home (Naidu, 1982, cited in Okunola and Ikumola (2010)).…”