Drawing a line between
pre-teens street hawking and child labour or child abuse, has not really been easy because of divergent views about the subject matter, while some schools of thought view preteens street hawking as a bad omen to the society, which to them, constitutes an abuse of the child, others consider it as child training, and a way of carrying the child along in the daily running of the home.  The later defend their position by referring to African traditional education system which does not follow the usual classroom drills but uses the child directly to facilitate self reliance.
No system I believe is against taking a child through the occupations of his parents.  By merely sitting beside one’s parents as they go about their family chores or business, a child learns the skills of his parents and gradually, the child is thought to lay his hands as a tradition, on those skills and hobbies which he naturally gets used to as he develops.
At every point in a child’s development, the weight of assignment given to the child, must be commensurate with both his mental as well as the physical development, anything more, will be tantamount to labour which must be resisted by any sane mind which thinks well for humanity.
Suffice it to say that there is a limit to what job or duty a child could be subjected to which of course precludes being used as money making machinery.  Hence, the use of children to make money for the home through street hawking, is by all standards; mentally, physically, socially and morally dangerous and harmful to them as it deprives them of opportunities for schooling and development.  Moreso, the high level of diverse and tedious jobs that children execute especially in dangerous circumstances, calls for worry, considering the fact that their effort has an insignificant impact in alleviating the economic hardship faced by their homes.
As the population of Port Harcourt City continues to swell considerably, given the influx of people from the northern part of the country who are chased out of their abode by the menacing Boko Haram insurgency, pre-teen hawking has also continued to increase despite all efforts by the state government at curbing this development.
Recently, the Rivers State Government threatened to arrest any child found hawking during school hours and to facilitate this, law enforcement agents are supposed to be on their toes to sweep the street and apprehend defaulters, especially targeting the arrest and prosecution of parents whose children and wards would be caught.
This is to lend credence to the State House of Assembly’s legislation four years ago against street hawking, in line with the Child’s Right Act as domesticated in the state, thus making it compulsory for every child of school age to be mandatorily enrolled in school.
Education and proper upbringing of the children is definitely the only way to eradicate poverty.  The law forbids the use of underage children for domestic labour as it negates the tenets of the Child Rights Law.
Although an opinion poll towards this recent warning by the state government has revealed that many parents and guardians have decided to keep their children and wards behind or allow them go to school in the day while using them for their money making spree at night, this will actually suffocate the reason behind taking the child off the street which is to get him educated.
Coming back from school and facing street hawking is definitely not enabling for such intention as the child would not have the time to concentrate on his home work and after-school-reading, not to talk of having rest for a  better mental development.
However, other times, parents and guardians could hide under the cloak of using the child to raise money for his training. Hurray!, the present administration, under the leadership of Rt Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has taken that burden of child’s educational training off the shoulders of parents and guardians by providing free education at the primary and secondary levels of education hence making parents inexcusable for deciding to keep their children and wards at home during school hours.
These children who are used for street hawking, do not only suffer fatigue, irregular attendance at school, lack of comprehension and motivation, they are also exposed to the risk of sexual abuse and high likelihood of being involved in crime, if they are fortunate enough to escape the antics of the ritualists.  Hence the effort of the state government at getting these young ones off the streets to school must be encouraged as it will not only restore the dignity of the child, but will help in checking the spate of restiveness and crime in the society.
One way to make this “Street to School” project a success is by enforcing legal instruments meant to protect the child.  Even though what is considered the best for the child may not appeal to his interest at the moment, we must stop at nothing in ensuring that every avenue geared towards protecting the child is explored.
In the same vein, this renewed campaign for Street to School will only be fruitful if parents do not misconstrue the intention of the government so as not to scuttle its efforts.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi