As economic hardship bites harder in Nigeria, many poor homes have intensified struggle to survive the crisis.
Findings by The Point revealed that more parents who are poor subject their children into child labour through hawking in order to support the family sustenance.
Sadly, these children, especially girls, have become easy prey to sexual predators.
Under the guise of patronising the young female hawkers, The Point learned that some randy men lure them into all sorts of sexual harassment and rape.
According to the World Health Organization, childhood sexual abuse is one of the most common types of childhood trauma, especially among females.
Global reviews have suggested a fairly greater prevalence of sexual abuse among children in fold higher risk in females compared to males.
Teenage girls have become the most vulnerable as they hawk to provide food for their families. It is the little they can contribute for family survival but they have become prey to predators, sexual molesters and abusers on streets.
According to reports, incidents of sexual assault have taken alarming turn among Nigerian female petty hawkers.
From touching them seductively while negotiating their wares to luring them into desolated areas where they defile them, some young girls have narrated their ugly experiences while making efforts to assist their parents through hawking.
14-year-old Deborah is a victim. The junior class two student in Ogun State was raped by a man who lured her with some amount of money before assaulting her sexually.
Deborah could not disclose her painful experience to her mother after she got back from work and her mother did not suspect anything despite that Deborah was bleeding.
However, her disturbing situation was discovered by a patent medicine seller Deborah approached for a cure for her bleeding.
The medicine seller narrated how Deborah, a virgin, came to her and narrated how she was sexually abused by a man on a Sunday evening and ended up bleeding profusely for days.
“She came to me and sat on a chair that she has been bleeding after a man raped her inside a shop while hawking on a Sunday evening. She said immediately after the sexual intercourse, she saw blood coming out of her private part.
“According to her, the man gave her some pills to take and when she asked what the drug was meant to do, the man told her it was to flush her system. As the bleeding became worse, she went to buy a pad to control it. She told me that she used six pads overnight on Sunday.
“I asked her the name of the drug the man gave her but she said she didn’t know. I asked her to go home and bring the carton. Immediately she stood up from the seat, I saw blood on the seat. I then asked her to use a towel to clean it, go home and wash it and return with the drug carton the next day.
“When she returned the next day, she told me that she had already used about five pads afterwards and that the bleeding was yet to stop. She said that the man gave her N2, 000 to pay for her school’s inter-house sports uniform. I think she had asked her parents for the fee and they could not provide it for her,” the lady identified as Bisi narrated.
Zainab’s ugly experience is similar to that of Deborah.
The secondary school graduate said she became sexually active very early and as such, her dream to become a lawyer is bleak.
Zainab said she was raped while hawking soap in Ogun State and was later tested pregnant.
Ever since her pregnancy, Zainab has dropped out of school and now works as a sales girl to fend for herself.
“I used to be a sales girl from Monday to Saturday. There was a shop I always go to. On Sunday, I will have to hawk pepper for my mother, from 6:30am till 1:00pm before I will return home to do other domestic chores. While hawking one day, I met a guy whom I thought wanted to buy soap, but dragged me into his room and raped me.
“I left school after I got pregnant from the rape. All I do now is a menial job to take care of myself and my child. Maybe in the near future, when I have money, I will further my education. My dream is to become a lawyer and I hope that comes to fulfillment someday,” she said.
According to statistics from Ogun State Sexual Assault Referral Centre, no fewer than 33 cases of child sexual abuse and 23 cases of domestic sexual abuse have so far been reported in the first quarter of the year.
Stakeholders have been urged to team up and ensure the government ends street trading by teenage girls.
A human rights activist, Citizen Lola Wey, called on parents to protect their children by not exposing them to sexual abuse through hawking and other means.
