Prevalence, profile and effects of adolescent street children in Benin City, Nigeria

Living in the street is a phenomenon alien to native communities in Africa and perhaps other traditional cultures in developing economies. The knit family unit in such communities protected children from living in the street. That the phenomenon has crept into such communities underscores the erosion of longstanding cultural values. The concept of street children is relatively new, with paucity of data on the burden and consequences on its victims in various locale. This endeavour sought to bridge these knowledge gaps. We sampled all adolescents (225) agreeable to the study objectives in all motor parks and markets in the metropolis of Benin. Using researcher administered proforma, subjects’ biodata, social characteristics, consequences of living in the street and risk factors for the phenomenon were gathered over an 8 month period. The prevalence of street children was 9 per 10,000 adolescent population. More females than males were involved and only two subjects were children of the street as distinct from others who were children on the street. Only 91or 40.4% of the subjects were indigenes of Edo State. Their mean age was 13.14 years (range: 10-17 years). One hundred and fifty one of the 225 adolescents still had one or both parents alive. Their fathers were mainly unskilled labourers (121/151 or 69.5%) or junior civil servants/privately employed workers (40/151 or 23.0%). Vocations of 224 of the children were hawking of wares, (107 or 47.8%); trading, 55 or 24.6% and begging, 37 or 16.5%. School dropout rate among the subjects was more among middle (30.0%) and late adolescents (38.0%). As many as 100/224 or 44.6% had access to only one or two meals/day while about 50.0% alluded to consuming protein rich diets only once or less per day. Approximately a third each of the subjects (only 218 responded to this theme) had lived as street children respectively for one, two and three years at the point of recruitment. Reasons for engaging in street activities as volunteered by 220 respondents were: the need to supplement family income, 83 or 37.7%; raise monies for personal needs, 50 or 23.0% while 36 or 16.4% needed the proceeds for self feeding. Of the 173/225 or 76.9% that responded to the consequences of the phenomenon, 73 or 42.2% each implicated infrequent school attendance and undue exposure to accidents/illnesses. Others were poor school performance, 43 or 24.9% and being impediment to achieving maximum potentials in life, 10 or 5.8%. The main aspiration of 175 of 214 (81.8%) respondents was getting back to school. “Street children” is real in Benin City. We may have succeeded in exposing only the tip of an iceberg. With deteriorating socio economy in the country prevalence could increase. Children in the street are a threat to themselves and the community. General and specific measures should be taken by the State and other stakeholders to checkmate the menace. Keywords: Street Children, Adolescents, Benin City, Prevalence, Consequences