The Resource Center for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), an NGO, in collaboration with Anti-Slavery International (ASI), has called the attention of the federal government and state governors to the human rights abuses experienced by children called ‘almajiri’.
Its executive director, Dr. Ibrahim Zikirullahi, made the call in Abuja during the public presentation of its research report titled “Shackles to the past; an exploration of the best prospect for combating forced child begging.”
He said, the research is focused on understanding the details of what has worked well and what has not worked so well with reference to the various state and non-state interventions on forced child begging in Northern Nigeria.
He noted the increase in forced child begging in Nigeria, especially in northern Nigeria, adding that no amount of statistical data can better describe the enormity of the problem than the disturbing everyday experience of seeing hordes of hungry, undernourished, and barely clad children roaming the streets of major cities in the north of Nigeria.
He said: “These children are supposed to be young pupils of Qur’anic schools pursuing the goal of acquiring religious knowledge. However, the reality of the collapse of the ancient system of religious education means the Qur’anic teachers or ‘Mallams’ have no means of fending for the pupils in their care and they resort to sending out the children to beg to sustain both the Mallam and the almajirai themselves.
“Ostensibly in the keep of their Mallam, these children spend almost all their day in the streets and in market places, and spend their night wherever they find to lay their heads. Thus, these children are effectively abandoned by their parents and exploited by their Mallams.”
