Some stakeholders advocating for the protection of women’s and children’s rights in Enugu have lamented the increasing rate of child abuse across communities in the state.
The stakeholders also decried the poor enforcement of child rights laws by the Enugu government at a stakeholders’ consultative forum organised for the consideration and adoption of effective strategies for implementing child rights laws on Wednesday.
The event was organised by The Women Aid Collective (WACOL) in collaboration with The Agents for Citizens-driven Transformation (ACT) Programme, which is supported by the European Union and run by the British Council.
The gender-based violence survey conducted in August revealed a rise in child maltreatment in the region, according to David Agu, the research coordinator at the Development Strategy Centre in Enugu.
“Sometime this year, the EU ACT programme wanted us to create awareness on the level of child abuse in Enugu. So some NGOs agreed to work with them to increase the level of implementation of child rights laws in Enugu, and as a centre, we saw the need to do a study on child abuse in the state,” Mr Agu said. “In the four LGAs, four communities were selected in a way that it will represent the state and data were collected from students and households in those communities.”
According to him, findings revealed that child abuse, including child labour and physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, was highly prevalent in Enugu, with 50% of boys, particularly in Enugu West LGA, Oji-River, Udi, and Igboeze North LGAs, also witnessing child labour.
In all 17 LGAs in Enugu, according to Mr Agu, fewer than half of the population was aware of the Child Rights Act, and there was no database for child abuse.
