“We Undergo Hard Labour To Get Food, Healthcare” – Poor Children Lament
UNICEF Social Policy Specialist, Mr Yusuf Auta fielding questions from Journalists on the sidelines of the recently concluded Media Dialogue on Child Poverty in Gombe. Photo: Murtala Muhammad
By Murtala Muhammad
Access to Education, healthcare, shelter, nutrition, information, water sanitation and Hygiene WASH facilities, as well as protection from all forms of abuse, have been identified as the major factors exposing children to poverty.
Any child who lacks access to these basic needs is said to be affected by both Monetary and Multidimensional poverty.
Against this backdrop, our Correspondent examines the effect of these parameters among children in Bauchi State, particularly the state capital.
Monetary Poverty is the lack of income to meet basic needs to include goods and services, which is usually measured by household income or consumption.
According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) all children have rights to access these basic needs, noting that any child who lacks three out of his or her rights is said to be multi-dimensionally poor.
UNICEF says children constitute about 50% of Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe states’ population, noting that authorities concerned take decisions without consideration to their plight or needs.
Some children in the streets of Bauchi metropolis, revealed to Radio Nigeria that having food while hungry, getting medical attention when sick and access to formal education were non-existent in their lives.
An eleven-year-old Basiru Saleh, and eight-year-old Sadiq Abdu disclosed that sometimes, they undergo hard labour to get food or even detergent to clean their tattered clothes.
The children said when sickness befalls them, they are usually left to the mercy of God for healing due to lack of money.
On how they feel seeing other children receiving formal education, and living with their parents, the children expressed discomfort that their parents send them to towns and cities without anyone to attend to their needs.
According to the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) and National Immunization Coverage Survey (NICS), with 54.9 percent, Bauchi state has the highest figure of child labour among other states of the country.
Experts have established that children who suffer multidimensional poverty undergo psychological trauma compared to those from families with better economic background.
Speaking on the sidelines of a two-day Media Dialogue on Child Poverty, organized recently by the UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, a Social Policy Specialist, Mr Yusuf Auta said government Social Protection policies must be strengthened in order to bridge the existing gaps.
Mr Auta said child poverty is a devastating condition affecting children, which results from lack of access to their rights, such as education, information, healthcare, shelter, nutrition, water sanitation and Hygiene among others.
He said three north eastern focused states of Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe have a high number of poor children, many of whom do not have access to three of these rights, a situation he said must be checked.
The Social Policy Specialist suggested provision of children grants and conditional cash training through parents as some of the measures that must be employed to arrest the problems.
Also speaking, a facilitator at the dialogue and lecturer with the Federal University of Kashere, in Gombe states, Dr Ali Madina Dankumo argued that corruption and inconsistency in the implementation of Social Protection Programmes were the biggest problems facing Nigeria as a country.
Dr Dankumo who said addressing these problems need concerted efforts and patriotism from the government and the citizens, emphasized that for the country to attain development, there was the need for journalists to advocate enhanced government’s budgetary allocation on children centered programmes with special focus on parent’s enlightenment regarding their obligations toward the children.
