OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS AMONG HAWKERS
ABSTRACT
This research project tends
to examine Occupational
Hazards among Hawkers in
Pen Cinema Area of Agege,
Lagos State.
Survey design was
employed with the use of a well structured questionnaire. Respondents were selected based on simple random
sampling technique. Sample size of One Hundred (100) respondents were selected from the staff of 7up Bottling
Company Plc.
Three hypotheses were formulated and tested with the use of Chi-Square analysis. The analysis resulted to rejecting
all null hypotheses and hence accepting the three alternate hypotheses.
Based on decisions of the tested hypotheses conclusions were reached that; there is significant relationship between
occupational hazards and hawking; there is relationship between physical environments in which hawker’s workand
lack of proper infrastructure like dean running water. It was recommended that governments adopt a developmental
approach to street trading that includes trading sites with secure tenure and infrastructure such as shelter; tables;
water and sanitation. Also policy reform in terms of issuing trading permits and developing regulations for renting trading sites is imperative.
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Street hawking, which is the act of selling retail goods directly on busy city streets is a major phenomenon in
developing countries. In most African cites the problem is especially acute, and Lagos, the Nigerian commercial
capital is no exception. Street hawking arises primarily because of rural-urban migration, unemployment, and the
increasing number of school dropouts; It serves as a source of livelihood and in addition, an avenue also, to
supplement family income. Rural poor youth moving into the city in search of non-existent jobs fail to find employment
because of lack of education and employable skills.
They end up as street hawkers selling wares on major city streets (Asiedu, et al 2008).
Deaths, accidents and infections from the workplace have been contributing immensely to the global mortality rate.
Annual death toll from unsafe occupation reported for 2006 was 1.1 million people. The recorded cases of fatalities in
the workplace that led to complete disability was about 300,000 out of 250 million while over 160 million people were
victims of work-related diseases (Ilo, 2006; WHO, 2006; llo, 2008; WHO, 2010)
Generally, both women and men are found concentrated in certain occupation, face similar conditions at work and
experience the same workplace hazards.
In Sub-Saharan Africa region, working women are also traditionally responsible for the household chores. However,
both sexes are physically different and women are more sensitive considering their reproductive roles. Gender
variations are difficult to specify especially for a low-income economy. The global figures for 2008 show that out of
337 million occupational accidents, 358,000 were confined as fatal, while deaths from occupational related illness
were 651,000 (WHO, 2010; ILO, 2006; ILO, 2008; Lu, 2(11). Observation from these data show that there is almost
77 percent increase in death toll from unsafe workplace between 2006 and 2008, 35 percent increase between the
same period while the number of fatal accident increased by 19 percent.
Women make up 45% of the employed population in the EU (European Union for Safety and Health at Work, 2012),
they constitute about 31.2 percent of Nigeria labour force (Eweama, 2009; National Bureau of Statistics (NBS1 2010).
Across the Eastern, Middle, Western and Southern Africa regions, about 37, 25, 22 and 2 percent of girls respectively
in age between 10 and 14 were economically active in the year 1990 (ILO, 1990; Bledsoe &Cohen 1993). The
proportion in the next older age (15-19 years) was 62, 39, 45 and 29 percent respectively in the same year (ILO,
1990; Bledsoe & Cohen, 1993). In Nigeria, the proportion of women in labour force is unfavorably compared to the men. A change in this paradigm as
currently been driven by gender equality agenda (including equal employment opportunities and support for women
enterprises that were enshrined in MDG 3 (UN, 2003; NPC & USAID, 2004; Oyekanmi, 2008; Commission on Legal
Empowerment of the Poor, 2008) can only be successfully achieved with the provision of safe working environment
for women.
The concentration of women in micro-enterprises with diverse methods of operations makes it more important to
address the gender dimension in health and safety at workplace. Healthy and safe work environments can enhance,
and are synonymous with quality jobs and output (Muir, 1974; Alli, 2001). It is envisaged that quality outputs would
impact on women’s earnings and might keep them in employment. Thus, attention must be paid to the health and
safety of the jobs that women do.
However, men and women are not the same neither is their jobs and the working conditions they are exposed to the
same. Likewise, the ways they are treated in the society also differ. These factors can affect the hazards they face at
work and the approach that needs to be taken to assess and control them. Women are always at the receiving end of
most social and economic hazards (National Population Commission and USAID, 2004) and street trading is not an
exception.
“A hawker can be defined as a person who offers goods for sale to the public without having a permanent built-up
structure from which to sell” (Asiedu, Ag yei-Mensah, 2008 Pg1). Street hawking exposes the individual to the risk of
potential accidents, loss of lives, abuse, reproductive health problems, easy prey to crime and prostitution as well as
a number of other social problems. In addition, street hawkers retard national growth because they cannot be taxed to
provide revenue for the government, impede traffic, increase travel time and fuel costs thus increasing transportation
costs and the average costs of dory business (Davis, 2008). In addition, hawkers operate in unsafe public spaces
where they have to man oeuvre between cars and motors to make their living at the risk of losing their lives and at the
mercy of the weather, crime amongst other factors.
Street hawking is therefore, a negation of the international convention on the rights of the child. It is indeed inhuman
for anyone to engage a child in moneymaking venture. Such a child is denied basic education which is another reign
of every child. Hence, child labour refers to the ill-treatment of a child by his parents or any other adult. Edu and Edu
(2009) describe child abuse as a willful maltreatment of a child. Such maltreatment according to them (In include acts
of commission (abuse) and omission (neglect).
A narrow definition of child abuse is limited to life-threatening physical violence, including severe beatings, bums and
strangulation which are inflicted on children by the adult members of the community. A broader
definition however, lays emphasis on any treatment other than the most favourable care, and includes neglect, sexual
or emotional abuse and exploitation. Whichever way, child abuse is the flagrant abuse of children’s God-given and
constitution-guaranteed freedom, comfort and peace, by adults in the society.
Therefore, this study examines occupational hazards affecting hawkers along Lagos-Badagry Expressway
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS AMONG HAWKERS