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PERSONAL RISKS AMONG HAWKERS

PERSONAL RISKS AMONG HAWKERS

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PERSONAL RISKS AMONG HAWKERS

ABSTRACT

This research project aims to investigate occupational hazards among hawkers in Agege’s Pen Cinema Area, Lagos State.

A well-structured questionnaire was used in the survey design. Respondents were chosen using a simple random sampling procedure. A total of one hundred (100) respondents were chosen from the 7up Bottling Company Plc personnel.

Three hypotheses were developed and tested using Chi-Square analysis. As a consequence of the study, all null hypotheses were rejected, and the three alternate hypotheses were accepted.

Based on the outcomes of the investigated hypotheses, the following conclusions were reached: there is a substantial association between occupational dangers and hawking; there is a relationship between the physical locations in where hawkers work and a lack of sufficient infrastructure such as dean running water.

Governments should take a progressive approach to street trade, which includes trading places with solid tenure and facilities such as shelter, tables, water, and sanitation. Also required is policy reform in terms of issuing trading permits and setting standards for renting trade venues.

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CHAPITRE ONE

HISTORY OF THE STUDY

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Street hawking, or selling retail goods directly on crowded city streets, is a common occurrence in developing countries. The problem is particularly significant in most African cities, including Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial centre.

Street hawking emerges primarily as a result of rural-urban migration, unemployment, and a rising number of school dropouts; it serves as a source of income as well as an avenue to augment family income. Rural poor adolescents that go to cities in quest of non-existent jobs are unable to obtain work due to a lack of education and employable skills.

They eventually become street hawkers, selling their wares on major metropolitan streets (Asiedu et al 2008).

Workplace deaths, accidents, and diseases have all contributed significantly to the worldwide mortality rate. In 2006, the annual death toll from risky occupations was reported to be 1.1 million people. There were around 300,000 workplace fatalities that resulted in total disability out of a population of 250 million, and over 160 million people were victims of work-related diseases. Ilo (2006); WHO (2006); llo (2008); WHO (2010)

In general, both men and women are concentrated in certain occupations, endure similar working circumstances, and confront the same workplace hazards.

Working women in Sub-Saharan Africa have historically been responsible for home tasks. However, both sexes are physically distinct, with women being more sensitive due to their reproductive functions. Gender differences are difficult to define, especially in a low-income country. According to global estimates for 2008, out of 337 million occupational accidents, 358,000 were fatal, while 651,000 died from work-related illness (WHO, 2010; ILO, 2006; ILO, 2008; Lu, 2(11).

According to these figures, there is a nearly 77 percent increase in the death toll from unsafe workplaces between 2006 and 2008, a 35 percent increase between the same period, and a 19 percent increase in the number of fatal accidents.

Women account for 45% of the employed population in the EU (European Union for Safety and Health at Work, 2012), while they account for around 31.2 percent of the work force in Nigeria (Eweama, 2009; National Bureau of Statistics (NBS1 2010).

In the Eastern, Middle, Western, and Southern Africa regions, approximately 37, 25, 22, and 2% of females aged 10 to 14 were economically active in 1990 (ILO, 1990; Bledsoe & Cohen 1993). In the same year, the share in the next older age group (15-19 years) was 62, 39, 45, and 29 percent (ILO, 1990; Bledsoe & Cohen, 1993).

In Nigeria, the proportion of women in the labour force is lower than that of men. A shift in this paradigm, as currently driven by the gender equality agenda (including equal employment opportunities and support for women-owned businesses as enshrined in MDG 3 (UN, 2003; NPC & USAID, 2004; Oyekanmi, 2008; Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, 2008), can only be accomplished with the provision of a safe working environment for women.

The preponderance of women in micro-enterprises with various ways of operation emphasises the importance of addressing the gender factor in workplace health and safety. Workplaces that are healthy and safe can improve and are associated with high-quality jobs and output (Muir, 1974; Alli, 2001). Quality outputs are expected to have an impact on women’s salaries and maybe retain them in the labour force. As a result, the health and safety of women’s jobs must be prioritised.

However, men and women are not the same, nor are their employment and the working conditions they face. Similarly, they are treated differently in society. These factors can have an impact on the hazards they confront at work as well as the technique that must be taken to analyse and control them. Most social and economic dangers disproportionately affect women (National Population Commission and USAID, 2004), and street trade is no 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 puts the individual at danger of probable accidents, loss of life, abuse, reproductive health issues, easy prey for crime and prostitution, and a variety of other societal concerns.

Furthermore, street hawkers stifle national progress since they cannot be taxed to generate revenue for the government, cause traffic congestion, increase travel time and fuel expenses, and hence raise transportation costs and the average cost of doing business (Davis, 2008).

Furthermore, hawkers operate in dangerous public locations, where they must manoeuvre between automobiles and motors to make a living, risking their lives and being at the whim of the weather, crime, and other elements.

As a result, street hawking is a violation of the international convention on the rights of the child. Anyone who involves a youngster in a money­making business is truly inhuman. A child of this type is denied basic education, which is another right of every child. As a result, child labour refers to the mistreatment of a child by his or her parents or any other adult. Child abuse is defined by Edu and Edu (2009) as purposeful maltreatment of a child. According to them, such mistreatment includes both acts of commission (abuse) and omission (neglect).

A restrictive definition of child abuse includes life-threatening physical violence, such as severe beatings, bums, and strangling, done on children by adults in the community.

A broader definition, on the other hand, emphasises any treatment other than the best care possible, and includes neglect, sexual or emotional abuse, and exploitation. Child abuse, in any case, is the egregious violation of children’s God-given and constitutionally guaranteed freedom, comfort, and tranquilly by adults in society.

As a result, this research looks into the occupational dangers that hawkers face along the Lagos-Badagry Motorway.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Employment in the informal sector has grown quickly in most emerging nations, including Nigeria, over the last few decades. The failure of the formal sector, which has traditionally been an important source of employment generation, to absorb the multitudes of semi-­skilled and unskilled persons to the city of Lagos State, as well as the government’s and modern private sector’s inability to generate adequate employment in recent years, has been the cause of this.

Street traders encounter more common job dangers. Every day, many people must transport 1ft heavy loads of items to and from their point of sale. They often work in locations that lack basic infrastructure, such as clean running water, toilets, and solid waste removal.

The incorrect provision of fire safety equipment and the improper regulation of traffic in business areas subject street sellers to physical injury. They are also subjected to high levels of air pollution and severe weather. These physical hazards have a disproportionate impact on small children who must accompany their mothers to vend on the streets.

According to Palmer (2007), support for skills development in the informal economy, which is by far the most popular destination for school leavers, is virtually non-existent. As a result, the most important issue being highlighted in relation to the phenomenon of street hawking is the issue of skills training and development to improve the status of these hawkers and to remove them from the situations they find themselves in while on the street. Despite the benefits of faster access to retail products that hawkers bring to drivers, vehicles, and walkers, their presence on the street comes at a hefty cost.

1.3RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following questions will be attempted to be answered in this study.

What are the causes of the surge in hawking in Agege’s pen cinema area?

Is there any law in Lagos state that protects or prevents hawkers from being hit by commercial drivers?

What are the health difficulties or risks that hawkers face?

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The primary goal of this research is to look into occupational dangers among hawkers in Agege’s pen cinema. However, the following are the goals, and they are to:

Agege sought to investigate the remote and proximate causes of hawking in pen cinema.

‘To investigate the numerous occupational hazards faced by hawkers at pen cinema, Agege

To determine the availability of environments where hawkers can work.

To investigate the physical threat confronted by the hawker in Agege’s pen cinema.

Agege will investigate the health implications of hawking on hawkers in pen cinema.

1.5 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

The study was undertaken to demonstrate the significance of occupational hazards impacting hawkers in Lagos State. In other words, the study is designed to educate readers on the implications of street trading.

Finally, the findings of this study should aid future research by scholars, students, health workers, administrators, financial experts, educational planners, decision makers, government organisations, and aspiring researchers. It will also supply important information, allowing individuals to make productive and constructive decisions that will help take our economy ahead. This research will also add to the existing body of knowledge on occupational dangers and child work.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF  STUDY

This study focused on occupational dangers among hawkers in Agege. It discusses topics such as the causes of hawking and the physical locations in which hawkers labour. In the same spirit, the study discusses the physical injury caused by faulty traffic regulation in business locations, particularly inside the specified region, and how it impacts them. It is only valid in the study region.

The scope of this study is restricted to a certain subject area. Inadequacy of literature has also drastically limited the amount of material available to the researcher due to the topic’s currency.

1.7  DEFINITION OF TERMS

The goal of operational definitions of terms is to make it easier for the reader to grasp the context in which such words have been employed in the study: The following is an example:

• Hawkers: Hawkers are low-income entrepreneurs who are mostly found in densely crowded urban informal sectors in developing countries.

• Street Children: Any child of school age who is not in school and is in need of basic essentials such as shelter, food, clothes, health-care services, and the love and protection of a parent or guardian.

• Poverty: The inability to meet a predetermined minimum level of consumption at which fundamental requirements are assumed to be met.

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