Abstract:
The street begging is a social menace which has a negative implication not only for economies of the cities, socio- physical environment but also for beggars themselves. Although studies have been extensively conducted on causes, prevention, reasons, strategies and eradications of street begging in Nigeria, sufficient attention has not been devoted to practices of street begging as a distinct phenomenon. Therefore, the study examined street practices in Ibadan North Local Government Area.
Qualitative and quantitative research design was used by the researcher to obtain in-depth data, regarding the practices of street begging, the population for the study comprises all street beggars within Ibadan north local government area. A purposive and convenience sampling techniques was employed for the selection of 200 male and female street beggars that participated in the quantitative study and 27 for qualitative collection of data. The study adopted qualitative, quantitative, observation, in-depth interview and key informant interview for the collection of data among street beggars in Ibadan north local government. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed separately so that they could complement each other. Qualitative data from observations, key informant interview and in-depth interviews were analyzed through theme and content analysis. Subsequently, responses were summarized, and analyzed.
Finding revealed that majority of the beggars beg on the street throughout the day from 8am to 9pm and most street beggars have target which must be met on daily basis, it also showed that most of the street beggars, particularly physically challenged ones always beg in groups and adopted praying as a major techniques of begging. Furthermore, the results of the study found that the factors that cause people to become street beggars and the phenomenon of begging are diverse and multifaceted, reasons that for begging include poverty, unemployment, physical challenges, homelessness, and family disintegration. Finding revealed that the categories of beggars that were school dropout, beggars who could not trace his/her family, and beggars who has lost their jobs.
Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that Government should provide alms houses, so that the poor can get helps on feeding and shelter, Nigerian Government should collaborate with the populace, counselors, philanthropists and NGOs in order to fight poverty and provide mass and free education devoid of any form of discomfort, employment should be provided for widowed and separated destitute women, Rehabilitation Centers should be established in every local government area of states within the Federation where counsellors can render educational, moral, vocational, emotional and personal-social services to the rehabilitated street beggars, Improve the literacy level of beggars and make them aware about the various government poverty alleviation programmes, academic researches on the issue should be encouraged from time to time to check and enhance the curbing of beggary problem, to mention a few were suggested for the various stakeholders.
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