TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 THE CONCEPT OF STREET BEGGING
2.2 REASON FOR STREET BEGGING
2.3 PROBLEM OF STREET BEGGING IN NIGERIA
2.4 SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF BEGGING IN NIGERIAN CITIES
2.5 EFFECTIVE METHODS OF COMBATING STREET BEGGING
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.3 STUDY POPULATION
3.4 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
3.5 DATA FOR THE STUDY: INSTRUMENTATION
3.5.1 INSTRUMENTATION
3.5.2 VALIDITY OF INSTRUMENT
3.6 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 DATA ANALYSIS (QUESTIONNAIRE)
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
5.2 CONCLUSION
5.3 RECOMMENDATION
REFERENCES
QUESTIONNAIRE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In Nigeria, street begging is a social problem that has become a source of concern to her citizens. The presence of beggars on major highways in recent times often violate social, political and economic changes, resulting from heavy migration of families from rural to urban places, where they face profound deprivation (Inyingidimkpa & Wilcox, 2007). These child street beggars mostly between the ages of [3-17] years are a regular feature of most of the northern Nigeria. They regularly move about in groups of 5-20 with plates or bowls in hand soliciting for stipends, food, or anything edible from people or passersby.
Some commentators have argued that this societal ill has a cultural/religious dimension to it, while others argued that it has more of the political dimension to it. As those who believe in this particular mantra have argued that the present volatile nature and persistent violence in northern Nigeria can be traced to the activities of these child street beggars. Whichever school of thought one belongs to, it is pertinent to draw the attention of political, traditional/cultural and religious leaders in Nigeria to this untoward social behavior, on the need to put a stop to this practice. It is unfathomable that in this age and time when kids who should be in school or doing something positive with their lives are left to roam about the streets, all in the name of whatever social/cultural/religious or political nuances.
According to Lynch (2005), street begging is often regarded as an anti-social behaviour issue. Mortimer (2005) defined street begging as asking for money without an exchange of service in a public place. Wikipedia (2010) defined begging as a practice whereby a person obtains money, food, shelter or other things from people they encounter by request. Olawale (2007) regarded alms begging as the habit of someone (a beggar) soliciting for favour from others (potential donors) for survival and enrichment.
The situation in Nigerian cities as observed everyday is perhaps worse with different categories of beggars found at motor parks, religious centers, markets, road junctions, venues of ceremonies, among other public places begging for alms (Ojo, 2005).
Cities across the world are confronted with diverse and complex problems which have socio-economic and physical implications for cities’ dwellers. These problems as experienced by cities of less developed countries are enormous and multidimensional in nature.
One obvious manifestation of these problems, especially in Nigeria, is begging, that is the act of asking people for money, food, clothes, etc. (Jelili, 2006).
The problem of begging is a social menace which has a negative implication not only for cities’ economies, socio-physical environment but also for beggars themselves. The increasing population of beggars in Nigerian cities constitute an eyesore or environmental nuisance and health hazards, particularly those carrying infectious and contagious diseases (Egeonu, 1988).
In Nigeria, Mijinyawa (2001) perceived begging as a derogatory habit brought about by unrestricted movement of the “almajiri” children especially in the North, which is now associated with touting. Beggars are called by other names locally. Among the Hausa people, they are called Almajiri, the Ibo people call them Onyearirio while Yoruba call them Onibara. In their own views, Horn and Cooke (2001) regarded begging as an income supplement necessary for survival at some levels, related to addictive behaviours or the need for food, accommodation, health, and so on.
The practice of street begging by people living with disabilities has become an embarrassing social phenomenon across the nation. In Nigeria, people living with disabilities flood the streets seeking and soliciting for alms from passers-by, motorists, cyclists, foreigners and the general public (Olawale, 2007).
Konkola (1998) explained that street begging has assumed a serious problem in Africa for two reasons. First, the attitude of society towards the people living with disabilities is that of abandonment, apathy and over-protection. Secondly, the attitude of society has created negative attitude of total dependency among people living with disabilities themselves. Phelan, Bruce, Moore and Estueve (1997) and Osiki (1999) also attached beggary to conditions that have sociological connotations like poverty, under-educational, underprivileged and homelessness.
According to Olawale (2007), begging behaviour among people living with disabilities could be understood in four dimensions. First, there are some disabled persons who are forced into begging by their condition that is, begging for survival. Secondly, there are persons who beg without realizing that it is abnormal to do so, not necessarily for survival, but as a permissible norm. Thirdly, some persons beg because they have learnt to do so (either from their parents, guardians, or models). Lastly, some persons beg because they are psychologically predisposed to do so (due to lower self-esteem, lower achievement and lower motivation).
It has been observed that in most parts of Nigeria, people living with disabilities that ought to be in the schools are still roaming the street begging for alms. This is a major problem that has contributed to the wrong behaviours manifested by people living with disabilities which resulted to the way the society view them as people who need to beg for alms to survive (Olawale, 2007). Ammani (2010) observed that the populations of beggars are growing exponentially on Nigerian streets. The menace of street-begging as a potential threat to Nigerian societal fabric is obvious.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
According to Mortimer (2005), problems of street begging include sexual harassment of female beggars, being driven from one location to another, exposure to raw weather, fear of being captured for sacrifice are reported by the subject themselves. Eyo, Usoro and Usoro (2007) viewed street-begging as a national malady that eats into the fabrics of social, economic, religious, political and educational structures. This results to sexual assault by the prospective male benefactor, misfortune of being knocked down by passing vehicles, depreciation of societal image, disorderliness and stigma against the nation’s social and economic systems. Nwangu (2007) examined what push children into urban streets which emphasized causes of street-begging like poverty, non-challant attitude by the parents and low educational attainment by the parents, school dropout, and teenage pregnancy among others. Mbakogu (2004) and Ebigbo (2003) conducted on street-begging on so called “normal” people, there seem to be little or nothing done on these three variables together nor on street beggars living with disabilities.
Beggars constitute social threat to Nigerian society especially in the cities. They portray a bad image to outsiders or strangers. Some criminals hid under the guise of beggars to perpetuate their evil deeds. They are at times used as instruments by mischief makers, who use them to vandalize public properties and utilities built with nation’s resources (NCFWD, 2001).
Lack of social supports have influenced the exponential increase in the number of street beggars in the society. In some cases, the social supports provided by the government do not get to the beggars because of corruption among government workers. These problems make it glaring that there is a need to carry out a study on Perceived social support of street beggars in Nigeria, A case study of Lagos state.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The general objective of this study is to examine the Perceived social support of street beggars in Nigeria, A case study of Lagos state. The specific objectives include the following:
1. To investigate the prevalence of street begging on the streets of Ikeja LGA of Lagos state.
2. To find out the causes of street begging on the streets of Ikeja LGA of Lagos state.
3. To determine the influence of Rehabilitation Centre in reducing the rate of street begging on the streets of Ikeja LGA of Lagos state.
4. To examine if street beggars on the streets of Ikeja LGA of Lagos state receives supports from people.
5. To investigate the